


Here we are, my friends.

by Embelom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gay Keith, I promise things get better, Lance breaks down in front of blue and everyone, Langst, M/M, The lions are protective over lance, allura is a great sister, bi lance, coran tries his best, hunk is the MPV++ friend, i was too lazy to rewatch the first episode, i write this instead of studying, keith shall protect his boyfriend at all costs, klance, me just casually ignoring where blue abandons lance, pidge and shiro need sleep, shiro is a wise old man, there will be klance eventually i promise-, time traveler lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-10-25 03:53:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20717660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Embelom/pseuds/Embelom
Summary: Everything was black.Everything was dark for a very long time.Lance knew that. He knew he wouldn't see his family or friends again. After all, they lost the war. They died.It was impossible to turn back now.Was it?_______OR: In which Lance goes back in time and tries to fix everything.





	1. Black. White. Then Blue.

**Author's Note:**

> Aaah! This is my first fanfiction so please give me some slack! I'm too lazy to rewatch the first episode, so I apologize that many things will be wrong such as the exact dialogue of the characters in certain episodes.
> 
> Hopefully, to whoever even cares to read this, you'll enjoy it!

He died.  
They died.  
They failed. 

Lance remembered it clearly. They were supposed to end Zarokon- once and for all. They were prepared. They had allies with them. How could things go so horribly wrong?

He remembered his teammates’s screams as they died. The agony and pure pain they were in. As he tried to ease their pain. 

When they died, he had nothing left. Zarkon was before him, grinning widely. 

“What now, paladin? Your friends are dead. Your allies have betrayed you. And now, you shall perish along with them.”

Lance blinked warily at the man, who had his sword pointed at him. 

“You will regret this, Zarkon. Your downfall will come.” Lance hissed, unlike his usual cocky and positive self. 

Zarkon simply smiled, throwing the blade to his neck. 

Lance saw black.

Then, Lance saw white. 

Finally, his eyes opened. 

Lance saw….

The garrison. His dorm room. Hunk. 

Hunk. 

The yellow paladin was coughing up blood, blinking rapidly. Lance hurried to him, tears already welling in his eyes. Hunk was the second to go, next to Pidge. He bent by his best friend, trying not to yell in anguish. 

Hunk raised a shaky hand at Lance, which immediately fell back on the ground as soon as he lifted it. The engineer and cook smiled softly. 

“Lance?”

“Y….Yes, hermano?” 

“I’ll say hi to Pidge for you, ok? Be safe, please take care of yourself all-“ he coughed, “-alright? Don’t beat yourself up about this.” 

Tears fell from Lance’s eyes. Even as he was dying, Hunk was looking out for his friends. This wasn’t the Hunk he had known, all those months ago, who would ball his eyes out if this happened. 

But, this Hunk, was stronger. With strength and emotionally. And, to be honest, Lance couldn’t be more proud of his not blood brother. 

Lance had a watery smile on his face,“Of….of course, Hunk. Of course I will. You’ll make it though, ok? Help is on the way…” 

Hunk shook his head, “No, Lance. I’m going to die. I know it. You know it. At least..” The yellow paladin let out a shaky gasp, “I got to spend my last moments with my brother.”

And with that final sentence, Hunk drew his last breath. His body was stiff, unmoving. The dark eyes that would be full of excitement and worry were emotionless and dull. 

Lance let out a cry of grief that echoed through the field. A figure jogged behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Lance, we have to go….”

“Lance…”

“Lance…”

“Lance!”

Said boy snapped back into reality. Hunk looked at him with worry on his face. Hunk? Hunk wasn’t supposed to be here…he was dead. Lance saw him die. 

Hunk let out a sigh of relief, his large eyes edging with worry, “Buddy? Lance? Are you ok? You seem shaken up.” 

Lance’s breath hitched as he saw the younger version of his best friend. How was this possible? This shouldn’t be…enough of that. He’ll have to figure out later. 

The (soon to be) paladin used his trademark smile, “Yeah, of course my guy! Just had a bad dream, that’s all.” 

Hunk still didn’t look convinced, “Do you mind telling me what it was about?”

Lance nervously chuckled, “No, it’s fine- really. Anyways, what day is it?”

“September, 20, 2XXX.“ Hunk replied immediately, frowning slightly, “Are you sure you’re ok?” he added.

The sharpshooter smiled, “Don’t worry about it, Hunk! It was nothing.” 

Huh. Today was the day that they were sent off to space. Wasn’t that just…convenient. He didn’t have time to think about it though, when he heard step foots and the shout of “Lights out!”. 

From the crack of their dorm door, Lance saw a blur of green, white, amber, and gray rush past. Pidge. 

“Hey, what is sh- he up to?” Lance asked, almost slipping. Right, they didn’t know Pidge was a girl. 

Hunk nervously looked at Lance and his eyes widened, “Oh, no, we are not doing this. I know what you’re thinking Lance and-“

“Please, Hunk? It’ll only be just a second! Can’t we just say hi to our best buddy?” Lance whined. 

Hunk sighed, accepting defeat. “Fine. But if we get in trouble, you are so owing me.”

Lance grinned, “Deal.” 

The two of them snuck out, sneaking past rooms and guards alike- until they were on top of the Garrison. Lance’s smile faltered for a second as he saw Pidge. 

Pidge. Katie. 

Lance was fighting one of the galran soldiers as a blade covered him from his back. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Pidge being cornered by a galra general. His eyes widened as he tried to flee from his fight to get to Pidge. 

The galran he was fighting hissed and grabbed his arm. The blue paladin shot at the purple alien. While he was distracted, Lance raced forward toward his teammate. 

He was almost there.

So close.

Just a little further.

He-

BANG!

The blue paladin watched in horror as he saw Pidge get shot three times. Her scream. Her high-pitched horrid scream of pain. The female galran general smirked at her victory and waved the paladin off. She seemed to make a motion that read, ‘easy’. 

Lance immediately rushed forward, catching the smaller paladin in his arms just as she was about to hit the ground. 

She was the first to go. 

“Pidge, you little- you better keep your eyes open!” He yelled desperately. 

However, Pidge was chuckling the tiniest bit as her wounds damaged her more and more. 

The green paladin let out a small laugh, “Lance, we both know it’s logical that I won’t survi-“ she was cut off. 

“No! You are not dying on me, you hear? You have so much…your brother, your father, your family..” Lance interrupted fiercely. 

Pidge smiled weakly, closing her eyes, “Tell my family I’m sorry.” she whispered. 

Lance’s eyes widened as tears escaped from his eyes, “No! Pidge! Katie!” he shrieked as his little sister figure stopped breathing. 

Lance sobbed loudly, his arms covering her small body. She was so young. She had so much to gain. She had a future waiting for her. 

Hunk glanced at his direction with horror streaked across his features. His best friend raced at him and his now dead little sister figure. 

“Oh my god…” The yellow paladin covered his mouth with his hand, “Oh my god…no…not Pidge…” 

This just made Lance cry harder. Hunk started to sob as well and kneeled next to Lance, hugging him with one arm. Lance returned the hug, squeezing Hunk’s shoulders tightly. 

“She- she- I saw her being cornered- I should’ve-“ The blue paladin croaked, staring at the face that was so full of life just seconds ago stay still. 

He was cut off by a loud crash that brought them both back to the battle at hand. They had no time to grieve. Not now. Hunk got up first and extended his hand, tears still streaming on his cheeks. 

“We…we gotta make sure the others are safe, right? We can’t let them win this.” Hunk’s voice quavered a bit.

Lance nodded, still shaken, “Yeah…yeah. We need to make sure the others are ok.” 

The blue paladin took his not by blood brother’s hand and tried to smile. He closed his eyes for just a second, trying to register the scene in his head again. 

Lance was brought into reality with the quizzed expression from Hunk, waving his hand in front of his face.

“Lance? Earth to Lance?” He murmured quietly so Pidge wouldn’t hear. 

Lance felt tears prick at his eyes but forced them down. He wasn’t going to cry. Not here. Not now. 

“Sorry, just spaced out.” He reassured and smirked in his usual way. 

A purr echoed in his mind. 

Lance flinched. Blue? Was Blue here? 

‘Yes, my cub.’ a soothing voice echoed in his mind. 

It was soft, silky and comforting. Her voice reminded him of his mother’s friend, Kaia, who was the sweetest lady he had ever met. She would always listen to anyones problems and be selfless for even the littlest things. 

‘Blue?’ he asked again. 

‘Lance, if you don’t stop asking her for her name I am going to get a headache.’ a new voice grumbled. 

It was gruff and a deep voice. It was intimidating, sure, but when you’re in a war, you hear a lot of intimidating voices. This didn’t really seem to phase Lance. 

‘Red?’ Lance guessed. 

Red just groaned in response while Blue was giggling like mad. Lance wondered silently why Red was here. Sure, he may have piloted the lion a few times and, of course, his boyfriend usually drove him. 

A new voice echoed in his mind, this one a lot more squeaky, ‘We are all here, Lance. Although it is a rather interesting reason why we are here. Well, you see, Lance-‘

That’s Green. Yup. Defiantly. He could hear the nerd talk all the way from earth to the galran empire. 

Green huffed, ‘It is not “nerd talk” it is simply-‘

A new voice chuckled, ‘Green, I think we should explain later. He’s probably very confused…'

This voice was like Blue, except it was more masculine and deeper. However, it still showed the exact same comfort. Only this time, the voice was a little bit more firm. 

Yellow. 

‘Indeed. Yellow is correct, we do not have time for this, Green. We will explain later, however, not at this moment.’ A deep voice answered. 

It had more authority than Red and more intimidation. Although the voice seemed to soften a bit at the end. 

Black. 

Lance shook his head slightly and crept towards Pidge, grinning like a maniac. He was glad to see the green paladin again- even if they weren’t as close as before. It was glad to have her back. 

He bent down and whispered into the smaller person’s ear, “Whatcha got there, buddy ol’ pal?” 

Pidge flinched, spinning around with wide eyes while clutching her computer to her chest. She grumbled as her eyes were upon Lance, who was standing up straight again. 

“Lance! Wait, Hunk, too?” She inquired as Hunk stepped closer. 

He simply nodded as Pidge went back to work with a sigh. 

“Uhm…what is that?” Hunk asked, reaching out to touch her computer.

Lance nodded, “Yeah, it’s not any garrison tech I know.”

Pidge smiled widely, pride showered their eyes, “That’s because I made it!” they exclaimed with a huff. 

“Impressive.” Lance admitted, bending down, “So, what does it do?” he asked. 

‘Well, it’s-‘ Green started, but was interrupted. 

‘He knows what it is, Green.’ 

‘Stop bullying me, Red!’ 

‘I’m not- oh my gosh. I am not bullying you. Blue, tell her I’m not bullying her.’

Black sighed. ‘Green, Red, stop fighting, please.’ 

‘Yes! I wanna listen to the conversation.’ Blue hummed. 

Red grumbled something about ‘nosy lions’ before the sounds in his head disappeared. 

Lance blinked, watching Hunk and Pidge talk. He missed what she was going to say. Oh no, what were they saying? 

“-it’s readings are different tonight, though. They keep saying the word ‘Voltron.’” He caught onto Pidge saying. 

He let out a silent breath of relief, thanking any entity there was that he didn’t miss anything important. 

‘Thank you!’ Yellow quipped softly. 

“What’s a ‘Voltron’?” Hunk asked cluelessly. 

Lance snorted in his mind, if only they knew. It was not a ‘what’ question it was really more of a ‘who’ question, if anything. Would it? Now Lance was confused. If it was made out of five sentient lions and-

‘Focus.’ Black murmured in his mind, snapping him back in reality. 

He silently thanked the lion as he started paying attention once more. 

“-don’t know, but it keeps repeating itself-“ Pidge was cut off by another voice. 

“Attention everyone, we are going into a lockdown. Please remain inside at all times until this issue is further noted. Thank you.” Iverson’s gruff voice announced. Lance forgot what he sounded like and was slightly surprised.

Hunk’s eyes flashed with anxiety, “What was that about? Why are they on lockdown? What-“ he asked frantically. 

“Oh my gosh- look up there!” Pidge exclaimed. 

Lance looked up, and there it was. The ship. Shiro. Shiro meant- Keith. The ship landed and the trio watched as Shiro was tied to the bed they had him restrained in. They got closer, hearing Shiro’s voice faintly. 

He sounded like a man who had lost hope, “Please! Listen to me! There are aliens- aliens are coming!” He yelled urgently. 

“Why aren’t they listening to him?” Hunk question, fear in his voice, “He’s Shiro!” 

Lance hummed and nodded. He had forgotten what Shiro looked like when his hair was so long. He wasn’t used to the look. Of course, nothing was wrong with Shiro- he was rocking the look, but- 

'My cub.' Blue’s voice swept in, reminding him to breathe. 

Right. Right. Focus, Lance. 

He saw Keith’s little getaway ship. It was far too small for Lance’s liking- he wondered for a split second how they were supposed to all fit only to remember that they had done it before. 

A grin split across his face, “Let’s see what’s going on down there, shall we?” 

Pidge smirked evilly with him, stepping forward. Hunk immediately recognize this. After all, he has lived with Pidge and Lance for the last few months. He knew about their antics, of course. 

“No. Absolutely not. I hate to be the voice of reason here, always, but can’t we just…sneak back inside and pretend this didn’t ever happen?”

But Lance was already running, Pidge on his tail as they laughed. Pidge pushed past him as he stopped dead in his tracks. 

“Fine, we’ll leave without you, then!” He called childishly. 

Hunk looked around frantically and hurried after his friends, having no choice. Who would take care of them anyways without him around? Knowing them, they’d probably do something stupid. 

Lance laughed silently at his own representation of Hunk’s personality. He didn’t care he was acting like a child at this point. He wanted to see Shiro- and of course, Keith. His heart swelled at just the thought of him; then it suddenly vanished. 

Blue purred comforting words into his mind as did the other lions as he was thinking about the whole event. Lance shook his head and smiled as he glanced down. He now had a clear representation of Shiro. Oh no- he thought he wouldn’t- after he saw Hunk and Pidge- why was this so hard now that he was seeing his leader up close? 

Shiro- Shiro was- 

Shiro was the next to go after Allura and Coran.

Lance’s face was morphed into anger and grief. He had shot so many- so many people. But they had hurt his friends. His family. Lance would not accept that no matter how guilty he feels. 

He was about to go help somebody else when he heard a cry of, “Lance, watch out!” 

The blue paladin immediately turned around sharply, watching in horror as Shiro fell to ground; he was stabbed. Lance screamed once he saw his leader’s body drop to the floor 

Lance held up his gun and started to shoot at the alien that had stabbed Shiro. Soon, there were now two bodies on the floor. The paladin shakily kicked the body away and knelt down to Shiro, whose eyes were wide and glassy. 

“Lance, was that….did you…?” Shiro’s eyes closed for a few seconds before reopening them. 

Lance held his head down, ashamed of himself, “I’m…I’m so sorry. Shiro, I didn’t- I-“ he tried to explain frantically. 

However, he was hushed by the black paladin who smiled softly, “I appreciate that you tried, Lance.” 

Lance shook his head. No. It was too much. Everyone around him was dying. It felt like such a horrible and nasty dream. Maybe, when he woke up, they’ll be in the castle again and everything would be ok. 

Shiro closed his eyes again, the period of time longer than the last, “You and Keith will have a happy life, yeah? Sorry I couldn’t be at the wedding.” he tried to joke. 

Shiro hissed in pain, eyebrows furrowing. He clutched his wound for a few seconds before laying back down again, his breath getting shallower. 

“Shiro, don’t you dare. You’re our leader. We need- Keith needs you. I can’t….how am I supposed to….” Lance said brokenly, voice wavering. 

The former galra prisoner smirked and shook his head slightly before closing his eyes. This time, he didn’t wake up. 

Lance wailed. He cried and cried and cried until someone came up behind him and hugged him tightly. It was a tight embrace and Lance appreciated it. 

The paladin blinked as voices brought him back into reality. However, neither of them belonged to Pidge or Hunk. 

‘Ok, it says here that humans are-‘ 

‘Green, not the time. We must help him. Please, for this moment, put away your knowledge just this once.’

‘Red, please calm down.’

‘I AM CALM! HOW ARE YOU NOT CALM, YELLOW? IM ALWAYS CALM.’

‘I am worried too, but-‘

‘No! He’s hurt and-‘

‘My cub, are you alright? Calm down, my paladin. Please. You are safe. It is us, remember? Your friends are here.’ 

Lance steadily breathed in and out slowly, calming down. He thanked the lions for their support silently as he followed Pidge down the hill. The trio raced down and saw Keith wipe out everyone who was standing in his way. Keith ripped the bands off from Shiro and started to support him on his shoulder.

Lance’s breath hitched. Keith. His wonderful Keith. 

Lance and Keith were back to back on the battlefield, wiping out more soldiers. They kept close to each other. After all, they were the only ones left. They were holding their ground surprisingly well, too. However, Haggar had a different set of mind. Once the soldiers around them were cleared, Haggar appeared in front of them and drew a dark violet color of magic to Lance’s head.

Keith’s eyes filled with panic then were replaced with determination. “Let him go.” the red paladin demanded, drawing his bayard at her. 

“Drop the weapon or he dies.” Haggar hissed, her evil smile rising.

“No! Keith! Don’t listen to her! She’s trying to-“ Lance tried to speak out, but the violet ball of magic only was edging closer to his head. 

Keith paused, clearly conflicted and sent an apologizing glance at his boyfriend. Lance sighed with relief, thinking that Keith wouldn’t sacrifice his weapon. 

He was wrong. 

Keith slowly placed the sword on the ground, ignoring Lance’s cries and shouts against his decision. The red lion pilot and paladin raised his hands in a surrender motion and looked directly at Lance, then Haggar.

“Let him go. Now.” Keith demanded again, eyes lightened with some sort of fire Lance couldn’t quite place. 

Haggar let Lance go, who fell into Keith’s arms, shaking. Keith glared at Haggar before kneeling down with Lance and whispering soothing words in his ear. Lance started to calm down before his panic was back as Keith screamed. 

He looked back at his boyfriend and was horrified at what he saw. Keith was blasted with the magic instead and was shuddering. Lance looked up at Hagger who was about to send another magic ball his way. The paladin narrowly dodged her blow and pushed Keith’s body away. 

Lance let out a scream. A blood curdling scream. Everything went red. The only thing he remembered was attacking Haggar again and again and again until she could no longer teleport. 

Before she teleported for the final time, she grinned widely, showing her sharp teeth. Her eyes glowed yellow as she spoke, “Oh, would you look at that. I don’t think your friend there will survive long, will he?” she sneered. 

Lance’s vision cleared the slightest as he looked at Keith who was watching him. Pain and amazement filled the red paladin’s eyes, but something else glinted in his eyes- pride. Why would Keith be proud of him? Of this? He didn’t understand. 

He glanced back at Haggar who continued to smile, “Goodbye, blue paladin. Enjoy your last moments.” she hissed. 

Lance ignored the part about his ‘last moments’ and immediately ran to Keith. He started to lift his boyfriend up slightly, rocking him slowly and crying. He held him closely and as tightly as he could. He couldn’t lose him. He had already lost everything. Please, please. 

“Keith, baby, please, don’t do this to me.” Lance sobbed. 

Keith let out a watery laugh, “Is this another bonding moment?” he asked.

“Yeah, Keith….yeah. But you have to stay awake, ok? You have to promise me you’ll stay awake.” He pleaded. 

Keith frowned, “Lance, you know I can’t….” he wheezed, “I’ll see you on the other side, yeah?” 

“Of course, Keith, of course.”

As Keith let out his final breath, he hugged Lance tightly and kissed his cheek. A whisper leapt out of his lips, “I love you so much.” 

Lance screamed. He cried. He punched the floor. He yelled at Keith. He yelled at the walls. He screamed until his lungs felt like they were rotting. This was a dream. A crazy, scary, horrifying dream. 

The (former?) blue paladin walked towards the two and helped support Shiro without saying a word. He was so close to breaking down in front of Keith. He had to stay strong. For the new future of Voltron. He couldn’t do this now. Not here. 

“Who are you?” Keith questions suspiciously as they get Shiro outside.

Lance hums, “It doesn’t matter right now. Name’s Lance McClain. We went to the garrison together.”

Keith tilts his head, “I don’t remember you.” he says bluntly.

“As I said, it’s not important who I am. We need to take care of Shiro.”

“We?”

“You don’t think we’re going to let somebody suffer alone, do you? You need as much help as you can.”

Keith pauses, sighs, and then mutters, “Fine.” 

Hunk nervously got onto Keith’s space (car? ship?) with Pidge and looked around. Lance supported Shiro onto Pidge who just glared at him. Keith got at the front, revving the engine. 

“Uhm…do you think we can fit in here?” Hunk asked, squirming. 

Pidge shrugged in response and squeaked as the small space plane flew up and raced off. The garrison were on their tails- that was for sure. Get it? Tails? Lions? 

‘Lance.’ A collective of replies played in his mind. However, the voices didn’t sound annoyed- more like amused and fond. 

“Hey! Why am I holding the guy?” Pidge asked suddenly, struggling to have a comftorable spot. 

Keith suddenly looked behind him, “Big man, lean left!” 

Hunk immediately assumed he was talking to him and leaned left. The ship leaned left, narrowly escaping some of the garrison ships. However, most of them were still on their tail. 

“Big man, lean right!” 

Hunk did so. The ship leaned right and just missed a cliff. Now there were only around three garrison ships left following them. They were coming across the edge of a cliff. Pidge immediately noticed this. 

“Are you insane?!” They screeched. 

“Trust me!” Keith responded. 

Hunk readied himself and put a hand over his mouth, looking over the edge. 

Pidge and Hunk screamed their heads off as they flew off of the cliff. Lance just laughed and put his arms in the air excitedly. Hunk just sent him a quick look that read ‘how are you still alive’. 

Lance stretched and patted Hunk’s shoulder reassuringly as his best friend struggled not to throw up. They flew through the desert for around a half an hour before arriving at Keith’s poor excuse of a house. 

Red huffed in his brain as Blue giggled. 

‘Yes, I do not understand how your kit survived out here, Red. With the poor-‘

‘I get it, Blue!’ Red barked, ‘He may not have great interior design sense, but he is a good paladin.’ he defended.

‘I never accused your cub of anything else, Red.’ Blue assured but then went back to teasing, ‘However, the-‘

Red groaned.

Lance let out a silent chuckle at the Lion’s antics. He slowly got out of the ship and helped Pidge get Shiro inside the shack. Keith led them to a room in the shack and let them put the leader down. Hunk was throwing up someplace. Lance should really go find him. 

Yellow purred in his mind, encouraging him to do so. 

“I’m going to find Hunk.” Lance said, already walking away. He could see Pidge nodding from the corner of his eye and Keith raise an eyebrow, but he promptly ignored them. 

He needed to find his brother. Lance searched the shack, not finding Hunk inside. The paladin went outside and put a hand over his forehead, trying to see. He saw Hunk at the edge of the shack, puking. Lance rushed forward and rubbed his friend’s back soothingly. 

“Hey, buddy, it’s going to be ok, alright? It’s almost over.” He soothed softly, “You’re almost done. You’re doing so well. Let it all out, hermano.” 

In around five minutes, Hunk was done. His best friend was shaking slightly and looked at Lance apologetically. 

“I’m sorry, Lance. You had to see that.” Hunk apologized softly.

Lance shook his head slightly, smiling the tiniest bit. “Hunk, it’s alright. You should know that I’ll support you no matter what. Sometimes it’s worst than others.”

Hunk smiled at Lance and hugged him. They hugged for a while before standing up and deciding that they should probably get back in the shack again. They walked together into the shack, talking rapidly together. 

Keith glanced at them once they walked in, “About time. What took you two so long?” 

Hunk looked around nervously and his eyes landed on Lance. Lance, of course, knew exactly what to do in situations like this. 

“We were just looking at your shack. It could use a few adjustments if I say so myself.” Lance smirked.

Keith huffed, his cheeks tinting pink ever so slightly. 

Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the hallway. There was Shiro, who had cut his hair already. How did Shiro cut his hair so efficiently and so swiftly? That was one of the things they will never know. 

‘Well, it’s not that-‘ Black hummed before being interrupted by his paladin. 

“Keith?” He asked tiredly, “Who are these people?” he straightened slightly, waking up more and more. 

Lance stretched out his hand, “My name is Lance. Nice to meet you, Shiro.” 

Shiro nodded and grinned slightly, shaking his hand. 

Pidge looked at Shiro directly in the eyes, “Pidge.” 

“Hunk! Great to meet you, Shiro, um, sir!” Hunk said frantically, clearly nervous. 

Shiro smiled again, laughing slightly. Keith huffed, sitting down at a medium-sized table with convenient five chairs. Pidge sat down as well, resting her head on her hands. Lance, Hunk, and Shiro sat down as well. 

Pidge cleared their throat, “Shiro, do you know anything about Voltron?” she asked.

Shiro looked confused, “No. What is Voltron?” 

Keith shook his head, “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. However, I do think I know where to find something that can lead to it.” 

Lance blinked, “How did you manage that?” 

“I have my ways.” He responds. 

Lance internally groaned. Last time, they did’t get to find out about how Keith got the information either. He wanted to know. Apparently, Keith in this timeline didn’t want to answer it, too. 

————

They had a few minutes before they left. Lance sighed, rubbing his temples. Stress was catching up with him as well as the events that had happened so far. What if they failed again? What if they all died again? It would be his fault. 

‘No, it wouldn’t be.’ A voice squeaked into his mind. ‘That is illogical, Lance. It would not be your fault at all. As long as you try your best- ugh this sounds cheesy- I’m sure you’ll beat Zarkon this time.’

Lance felt comforted by Green. Even though she wasn’t the best at feelings, she sure knew how to comfort somebody when she wanted to.

He could feel Green’s sense of pride from space to earth. It was nice to make someone happy. 

Yellow hummed into his mind, ‘You make us all happy, Lance. We’re glad to be your friends. And I for one agree with Green. You will succeed.’ 

Lance smiled at the lions’s ways to comfort him. He really appreciated the effort. Suddenly, Keith came up to him.

“We’re leaving now.” He announced, lending a hand down where Lance was sitting.

The paladin smirked and accepted the gesture, pulling himself up. “Thank you.” 

He barely noticed Keith’s cheeks turn red slightly. “Yeah. Whatever.” 

Lance followed the rest of the ‘team’ outside. He looked around, stretching and walking near Hunk. 

“We’re walking there, Lance.” His best friend groaned. “I don’t want to walk there. What if it’s hundreds of miles away?” 

Lance laughed lightly, “You’ll survive my guy. Don’t worry, it’ll be over before you know it.” 

Keith and Pidge led the way as they walked through the sand. Meanwhile, Lance was screaming happily in his mind. He would see Bue again. Sure, he could hear her voice in his mind, but it wasn’t the same. It was like seeing a best friend from another country for the first time in a couple of months. He was going to be with Blue again. One of the only people (or, lion?) that he would consider as a parent figure towards him. 

Before he knew it, they had arrived. They were entering the cave. Blue’s cave. He was practically bouncing with excitement. Blue purred loudly in his mind. She was happy as well. 

Lance ran inside the cave, not hearing the yells of protest from his comrades who quickly caught up with him. 

“Lance, don’t do that! You’ll-“ Keith was caught off at the sight of the cave. Paintings were everywhere. Some of the lions, some of Voltron, others of alteans and the galra. 

Everyone immediately started looking around and were fascinated by the sight. They were muttering amongst themselves, wondering what it could possibly meant. It was weird seeing Shiro and Pidge clueless at something. 

Suddenly, the floor swept beneath them. Someone had activated the trigger. Lance, himself, couldn’t be happier. He was practically laughing with delight as the others screamed. An ‘oof’ escaped the blue paladin as he fell down. It still hurt. That wouldn’t ruin his good mood, though. 

The whole team stared at Blue with wide eyes, awing at her. He could hear Blue yelling for him. He couldn’t wait to be with her again. 

Lance sprinted towards the lion, ignoring Shiro’s yell of ‘Lance!’. 

He kept running and running and running towards Blue. He was delighted as the partial shield shot down once he approached. Blue moved immediately, startling everyone except for Lance. Lance hugged her giant metallic paw and sobbed. It was great to have her back. 

“Blue! Blue! You’re here! You’re safe! Oh my god…Blue….I was so scared. I thought after….you would be captured! You’re safe….Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue.” He cried, hugging her paw still as she nuzzled his face softly. 

The others were very confused. However, he didn’t care right now. He was here with his other mother. And, really, that’s all that mattered to him at the moment. 

He was with Blue.

And that's all that mattered in that moment.


	2. First day on the job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team and co meet Allura and Coran.
> 
> Did I mention they had to find the lions?
> 
> Did I mention that they have to fight a completley new galra ship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa!  
I honestly didn't expect people to actually see this!  
Thank you all for those of you who have read/currently reading this!  
It means a lot to me!
> 
> Anyways, enjoy this chapter!

It took Lance a while to calm down. He wiped the remaining tears from his eyes and chuckled softly. 

“Uh…Lance?” 

Said boy’s head whipped around. He had forgotten that everyone else was still here. He must’ve gotten carried away. Lance silently cursed himself for getting too caught up in his emotions. He should’ve waited until after they went to the castle. 

“Care to explain, Lance?” Pidge asked, raising a brow. 

Think of an excuse. Think of an excuse. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod. 

‘Let me do this.’

‘Green, no. I told you it won’t-‘

‘Just trust me, Black!’

Lance felt sudden ideas pop into his head. Without thinking, he finds himself saying, “Sorry, don’t know what happened. Maybe it has this affect on everybody? It is alien tech after all.”

Lance blinked once. Twice. Three times. What just happened? He watched as the others gave him suspicious glances, but overall shrugged it off. Everyone else came and started to look at Blue, still amazed. 

‘That, Lance, is something we lions we can do if a bond is strong enough. It is the same for us if you can hear us, well, talking. Except this one needs a stronger bond than this.’ Green explained briefly. 

But he didn’t have a strong bond with most of the lions. Blue, yes, but they’ve never spoken to each other. Sometimes, he did have some moments with the lions, but it wasn’t that strong. 

‘We’ll explain everything when you get to the castle,’ Yellow assured, ‘Right now, however, we have too little time to talk.’

Lance nodded slightly. When everyone else came up to see Blue, they all stopped in their tracks. An image popped into his mind; the lions were forming Voltron. Man, he missed that. He missed flying Blue and forming Voltron. When everything were much more simpler. A planet would have trouble with the galra, they’d form Voltron, and then everything would be fine. 

Once the vision ended, Pidge was practically bouncing up and down in excitement. “Voltron is a giant robot!” 

Shiro nodded, “It seems as there are four more lions to find to form it.”

“Like a piece of a puzzle.” Hunk added.

Keith narrowed his eyes, “This seems suspicious, don’t you think? This is-“ the soon to be red paladin stopped as he saw Lance approach Blue closer. 

Lance was ready to pilot Blue again. He got inside his lion and smiled at the area. It was nice to see that she was cleaner than last time. He shuddered at the thought and quickly shooed it away. 

“Lance, what are you doing?” Keith asked, approaching the cuban boy. 

He smiled, “I think she wants to stretch her legs. C’mon! We gotta find the other lions, don’t we?” 

Keith looked at Shiro, as if silently asking ‘please tell me you’re not going through with this’. However, Shiro just heaved a sigh and looked at Keith.

“I think we should see where it-“

“She.” Lance muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Anyways, as I was saying, we should see where it takes us. This could be important.” 

Keith grunted and reluctantly got inside the lion along with Pidge and Hunk. Pidge kept silently examining the lion while Hunk was trying to comprehend everything. 

Lance sat in the pilot seat and adjusted his chair. He remembered when he first was piloting blue that the top of the chair was far too tall. He chuckled a tiny bit at the memory. He remembered complaining to Blue about it. (“Seriously, how tall was your last paladin? Was he, like, a giant or something?”)

Lance pushed some levers at the control center. Once he did so, blue lights lighted the inside of the lion. Blue purred loudly. She was glad to fly again, too. 

“Hold on tight!” Lance yelled cheerfully. 

Blue leaped and burst through the cave. She shook off whatever debris that was previously on her. She flew around gracefully, but quickly. Blue continued to do this for a few minutes before flying towards the garrison. She zoomed past it, roaring loudly. 

Lance laughed out loud at Iverson, who was outside. His face was absolutely priceless. 

Blue flew towards the sky again. They were like that for minutes. Lance didn’t even care that his teammates were clutching onto him for dear life. He deafened their screams to the back of his head. Blue flew towards a wormhole that had opened up. The others seemed to calm down a bit as she slowed down. 

“Never again.” Hunk gasped, “And…what’s that?” he asked. 

“Er- she says we have to go through it.” Lance explained. 

Keith crossed his arms, “She?” 

“Well isn’t she a sentient lion? They have feelings too, mullet!” He chimed. “Anyways, what do you think, Shiro? What should we do? You’re our captain here.” 

Shiro blinked a couple of times before speaking, “I trust her. She hasn’t done anything to us so far. Let’s go in.”

Lance nodded in affirmative and flew Blue inside the wormhole. When they got out, they saw the castle. It was as elegant as ever in all its beauty. 

Home. 

“We should approach it cautiously-“ Shiro was interrupted by Lance’s cheer as they flew towards the castle. 

Blue’s ‘deck’ in the castle opened at her command. She flew inside it, more slowly this time. She circled the area and promptly sat herself upright. Lance could practically feel her excitement from here. 

The group started to slowly get out of Blue and move down. Lance smirked at the castle. It hasn’t changed in the slightest. It felt nice. 

“Okay. We’re going to explore to see if anyone is here.” Shiro announced, getting everyone’s attention, “There’s a reason why we’re here. Everybody stay close and don’t separate.” 

Everyone in the group nodded or said ‘yes’ or ‘yeas’. They walked through the castles which looked odd without the normal lights on. Sure, Lance had went through the castle alone in the dark more than once, but the erie silence made him uncomfortable. Lance noticed the cryo pods in a room. 

“Hey, what’s in there?” Pidge asked, poking her head through the room. 

Shiro stepped ahead of Hunk. The leader looked around cautiously before his eyes were laid on Allura and Coran who were in two different cyro pods. 

“Are…are they dead?” Hunk whispered. 

Lance stepped outside of Allura’s cyro pod. Suddenly, the pod opened and Allura fell out. Lance swiftly caught her, not wanting her to hit the ground, of course. Now that he was seeing her in person, he remembered what had happened to her. 

It was dreadful. 

Allura hadn’t slept in days, only relying on everybody else to keep her awake. She had been trying her best to try to figure out a way to defeat Zarkon. Due to this, she was too weak to go out in battle. 

Before they went to war, he remembered pulling Allura aside, “Allura, I know you wan’t to fight with us on the battlefield, but it’s too dangerous-“

“No, Lance. It is my duty as princess to join my fellow soldiers in this war.” Her tone was colder, more serious than ever, “I will not stand aside and watch you and the other paladins fight while I’m getting a spa day.”

“Princess, you need rest. You’re not strong enough-“

“Do not tell me what I need to do or not, Lance.” She hissed, then her eyes softened as she looked at herself with shame, “I’m…I apologize. I didn’t mean that.”

Lance took her in for a hug, “It’s alright, but please, take a nap at least, ok? We’re all worried sick about you, ‘Lurra. You’re like a sister to me, y’know? Like a twin.” 

Allura was silent for a few moments before hugging back, tightening her grip on his jacket. “Thank you, Lance. I think of you like a sibling as well. I just…don’t want to afford any of you getting hurt.” 

Allura, for the past few days before the big battle, had not listened to Lance. She had lied when she said that she would get rest. She had become more paranoid and more distance towards everyone else. She snapped more often than she would before. Everyone tried to help her. Coran and Lance tried to get her to sleep properly, Shiro tried to get her to ease off of her work, Hunk tried to make her eat, Pidge tried to help her with her work and take control of some of it, and various aliens noticed her problem and tried to get her to rest as well. 

When the battle came, she died after Coran. Haggar had put an end to her. Lance saw it with his own two eyes. She was around ten feet away from where he was. Haggar was in front of her, magic surrounding her. 

Haggar smiled evilly, “Oh, Princess, isn’t this a surprise. We meet again.”

“I will defeat you.” Allura spat, her tired eyes narrowing. 

Haggar just laughed, “Oh? How so? Isn’t this cute. A petty little weak princess like you could barely do a scratch.” 

“My quintessence will overpower yours. So, you better leave before things get bad.” Allura threatened. 

“Hmm, maybe at once, yes, you could have overpowered me. However, in the state you’re in? Pathetic. Maybe you should have listened to your fellow comrades. Too bad you won’t see them again.” Haggar hummed. 

Allura stepped forward then began to run towards Haggar. She had a spear as her weapon, and she was charging straight at the druid. When she got close, however, Haggar flashed past the princess and blasted her with magic. Allura screamed, dropping her spear and immediately falling down. The druid smirked at Allura, who was shaking from the hit. She just laughed and teleported elsewhere. 

Lance forced himself to run towards Allura. He was paralyzed with what he just saw. He laid down next to his seemingly twin-like sister. Tears were already forming and falling from his face. Allura shuddered, gasped, and blinked her eyes opened. They were no longer their ice-like color. They were darker and more faded- if that was even possible. Her altean marks were slowly dimmed, the pink much more darker. 

“Lance..?” The altean asked with a whisper. 

Lance responded almost immediately,“I’m right here, Allura. I’m right here.” 

“I’m so sorry, Lance.” Allura had tears going down her cheeks now, “I’m supposed to be like an older sister to you. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

“No, no, no, no…Allura. You did your best. You were the best sister you could be. You tried and that’s all that mattered, ok?” 

The princess went on, “And I’m so sorry that I yelled at you- at everyone. You all didn’t deserve that.” 

“No, Allura. You were paranoid and tired. It wasn’t your fault.” The blue paladin soothed. 

“But it was-“ Allura grunted in pain, then continued, “I should have listened to you and the others.”

Lance shushed her quietly, wiping tears from his eyes. “It’s not your fault..” he whispered as newly formed tears raced across his cheeks. 

Allura covered her eyes with her hands, “I’m so tired, Lance. I’m so, so tired.”

Lance, again, shushed her softly, “Sleep, ‘Lura. You deserve it. I’ll- I’ll be here when you wake up…” 

She nodded slightly then her hands fell at her sides. Her face looked so tired- and now she was getting rest. Lance hugged her tightly. The oh so gorgeous pink marks on her face were now dulled as were her icy blue eyes. She didn’t deserve to go like this. 

“Uhm, are you alright?”

Lance blinked. He found the face of Allura looking at him curiously. 

“Oh, yes. Sorry, spaced out a little bit. Are you okay, though?” Lance fired. 

Allura paused for a minute before saying, “Your ears.” 

The blue paladin tried not to crack up and start laughing, “What about them?” 

The princess shuffled out of his arms, “They’re hideous! Why are they so rounded and small?”

Shiro raised an eyebrow, confusion clearly showing in his features. Coran’s pod opened and the advisor fell out. He reacted swiftly, getting into a defensive pose around Allura. 

Coran- oh god- Coran. 

Coran went straight after Hunk. 

The remaining paladins were fighting as the castle was holding its own ground. It was helping the lions defeat galran ships and such. Coran, of course, was the only person to be in the castle doing this. 

Lance was fighting on the battlefield, holding his own as he saw the castle in the sky. He saw the castle getting pushed around by three galran ships around it. He heard a mutter in his earpiece in his helmet.

“Coran? You okay?” Lance asked. 

He could hear Coran’s muffled response, “Yes, number three! Just a little, ugh, bruised.”

“You sure? I could get Blue and we could help you out.” Lance offered. 

“Yes. I am positive we can handle it here. Just- check up on Allura, will you?” 

“Of course. On my way.” 

Lance sprinted through the battlefield, shooting the opposite side here and there as he moved. He made sure to never let the ship out of his sight. He was still worried about Coran. He was like his crazy uncle. 

Lance was about halfway towards Allura before he heard a blast from the sky. His head snapped upwards just seeing the castle being hit by a galra ship. He saw the castle getting hit multiple times, each one harder than the last. The castle finally plowed to the ground. Lance watched with horror as the castle reached the ground. Debris flew through the sky as the paladin raced towards the fallen castle. 

It was absolute chaos. Aliens who were previously fighting on that space of the battlefield were either killed or heavily injured. The cuban boy slowly made it through the battlefield, calling the altean’s name. 

“Coran?! Coran! Can you hear me?” 

He heard a shuffling sound to his left. The boy got his bayard ready and slowly crept to a giant piece of debris. He saw a sparkle of ginger hair under the tower of the broken castle pieces. Coran. Lance sprinted swiftly towards the area, finding the poor man under everything. The front of his body had made it while the other half hadn’t. 

The man was already dead. His altean marks were dull and his eyes were glossed over. There was so much blood. 

“Coran, don’t- oh my goodness…how could this happen? Allura needs you! The team needs you! How could you…” The paladin trailed off, tears streaking his face. However, he dared not take off his helmet to wipe them off. “Don’t worry, Coran. You’ll be avenged. I promise.” 

With that, the blue paladin silently but shakily left the man’s dead body. He took his helmet off and threw it on the ground. Lance wiped the running tears from his eyes, letting out a quiet whimper. He had to find Allura. He had to. 

Lance’s breath hitched as he was brought back to reality. Coran was alive. He was ready to attack Keith, who was closest to him. 

“Who are you and what are you doing to the princess?” Coran demanded. 

Keith was also in a defensive pose, eyeing Coran. Oh goodness. This would most likely not end well. 

“Let’s all calm down, okay?” Hunk says, trying to keep his voice calm. 

However, Allura, who was now observing some altean tech, had different ideas, “Oh my….Coran. We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years. Father…Altea….they’re gone..”

Coran immediately forgot about Keith and went over to Allura, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

Pidge, who hasn’t spoken for a while, let her presence be known, “Uh…who are you exactly?”

Allura and Coran shifted, standing by each other. 

“I am Allura, princess of Altea. This is Coran, he is the royal family’s advisor.” Allura explained quickly. “And who are you five?”

Shiro decided to take charge, “I am Shiro. The others are Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance.” 

“How did you get here? King Alfor had hidden the castle well.” Coran quipped. 

“B- A blue lion brought us here.” Lance answered, almost slipping.

It would be too suspicious if he already called her ‘blue’. He mentally apologized to Blue who purred back reassuringly. Coran twirled his finger around his mustache, thinking. He suddenly snapped his fingers and looked at Allura. 

“They must be the new paladins of Voltron.” The altean man says. 

Allura thought this over before nodding slightly in agreement, “Must be. Otherwise, why would the blue lion bring them here? There are even five of them.” 

“Wait- paladins of Voltron?” Hunk asked nervously.

Coran nodded, “Follow me, we shall explain in a more comfortable place than this.” 

Everyone else nodded, following Coran silently. Lance sighed quietly. This was new. Hopefully, he wouldn’t lose his mind over going through this again. Things might still be the same though. What if he couldn’t change anything? Lance rubbed his forehead, the stress getting to him. 

‘Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Listen. Hello? Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance-‘ 

'What is it, Red?' He asked in his mind. 

‘Stop stressing over pointless stuff. It’s weird seeing you stressed.’ 

Lance silently snorted at the lion’s antics. 

‘Don’t laugh at me! You’re just like Blue!’

‘What you mean by that; beautiful, glorious, and amazing?’ A new voice hummed cheekily. 

‘Shut up, Blue!’ 

Lance giggled silently. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Maybe things will turn out. 

‘It will, I assure you.’ Black said out of nowhere. 

‘Not gonna lie, that was kinda random.’ Green interfered. 

‘Shush.’

A chorus of laughing played through his mind. Lance closed his eyes and smiled softly. It was nice. Finally, they had made it to the living area of the castle. Everyone sat down and started to listen to Allura and Coran talk.

Lance just pushed their voices to the back of his mind and pretended to listen. He had heard the talk before; he didn’t need to hear it again. He decided to talk to the lions since he didn’t have anything else to do. 

‘By the way, Yellow. Now that we can talk, why did you literally choose the most dangerous place in the galaxy to hide?’ He asked.

‘Well, it’s a safe place to hide. Although these vines are rather uncomfortable, it is safe, making so Zarkon cannot find me or get to me.’

Lance hummed silently,‘I guess that makes sense.’

‘Green, I’m bored. Can we do something fun?’ Blue whined. 

‘Why me?’ Green asked, slightly annoyed. 

‘Because.’

‘Because?’

‘Because.’

‘Blue, that’s not a good answer-‘ 

‘Because.’

‘Blue, please-‘

‘Because.’ 

‘Blue, please.’ 

‘Black, you’re no fun!’

‘That was a lot of B’s. You guys okay?’ Lance asked silently. 

‘Yes, Lance. Stop making fun of us.’ Red huffed.

‘I am not! Just pointing out some stuff’

‘Define “stuff”'

‘Shush little red kitten. The word is too complicated for you to say.’

‘Lance- oh my god- you do realize you just said that to a ten thousand and more year old sentient lion, right?’ 

‘Shush, little green lion.’ 

‘Lance!’

Allura’s voice brought him back into reality, “…and the blue lion is-“

“Let me guess, absolutely gorgeous?” Lance interrupted. It wasn’t a lie, Blue was absolutely amazing and beautiful. 

Blue laughed at the sweet praise from her paladin in his mind. 

‘Hey! Why don’t we get any praises like that?!’

‘Because I’m amazing, Green.’

“Well- the blue lion is indeed a graceful creature.” Allura says, blinking, “But her paladin is usually-“

“Also absolutely graceful?” He honestly didn’t want to hear the sappy description of the blue paladin. He had learned it from blue and it was absolutely cheesy. 

Allura groaned and continued, “The blue lion will go to you, Lance.” 

“Anyhow, we need to find the other lions. We have the Black lion secured in the castle, so we need the Green and Yellow lion. Follow me.” Coran added, standing up.

He walked everyone to the armory room where he pressed a button. The bayards and paladin armor appeared around them. They each took the bayard and paladin armor that represented their lion. Lance watched as the others activated their bayards, gasping in amazement as they turned into weapons. Lance looked down at his rifle and nodded slightly. It was his main weapon, however, he could change it into a sniper rifle if he wanted to. 

Lance grabbed his paladin armor which looked big on him. He never really understood how the armor magically fit them when they were either too big or too small. He went to go change and came back to the other four members of Voltron struggling with the armor. 

Hunk looked at him and groaned, “Lance, how do you deal with this? Look at my armor!” he flailed around his skinny paladin armor. 

“Just try it on, Hunk. It sort of..readjusts itself.” Lance shrugs, “I’m not sure how it works either.”

Hunk nodded and sighed, asking Coran for a room to change in before running off. Lance stretched, sitting down. He placed his bayard down and watched with amusement as the other paladins struggled. 

Keith noticed this and glared at him, “It’s not funny! How the hell did you get it to fit you? These are literally gigantic.” 

“Pfff, you’re just being dramatic, mullet.” 

“It is not a mullet.” 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, mullet.” Lance laughed. 

Keith grumbled something under his breath as he still tried to figure out how he would put his armor on. 

“Besides,” Lance cut in, getting his attention, “you probably won’t need it until after we get back.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Me and Hunk will probably go after Y- the yellow lion and Shiro and Pidge would most likely both go out for Gre- the green lion. So you could wait for the red lion here since they don’t know where h- it went.” 

‘Wow. Smooth.’ 

‘Shut up, Green.’

‘Whatever you say, Lance.’

Keith stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding. “That makes sense.”

“Of course it does!” Lance laughed. 

Keith huffed and crossed his arms. Silence was between the two for a couple of minutes before Allura and Coran went around and started to help the paladins. 

“So, what does your bayard turn into?” Keith asked, poorly trying to make conversation. 

“A rifle, you?” 

“Cool. I have a sword.” 

“Well! Now you can be a knight in shining armor! Do you get a shield too?” Lance joked. 

“Shut up.” 

“Yessir.” 

Allura’s voice raised over them, “Paladins! We are going to depart soon. Hunk, Lance, you will go to the blue lion and find the yellow lion. Shiro, Pidge, you will go get the green lion. I will send out a wormhole so you can get them. Keith, you will stay here and try to sense the red lion, as we do not know its location.”

Everyone nodded and went to pair up to whoever they were going or staying with. Keith just stood there awkwardly as Lance got up to go with Hunk. The blue paladin placed a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder. 

“Don’t worry so much. You’ll find the red lion.” Lance said, smiling. 

Keith huffed, “Yeah, well, you better be safe. I don’t know what these guys use as medication, but those pod things are weird.” 

“Pod things?”

“Shut up.”

“Wow, that’s the second time you said that today! You really need a better insult than that, mullet.”

Keith rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes. Lance laughed lightly, patting Keith’s back before walking over to Hunk. 

“You ready for this?” The cuban boy asked, half jokingly. 

Hunk just sighed, “I guess. But what if things go wrong? What if- what if-“

“Buddy, there’s going to be a lot of ‘what ifs’ my guy, but it’s not going to happen! What if we get the yellow lion back safely? Hm? What then?”

Hunk blinked and nodded. He seemed more reassured and Lance grinned. He was glad that slowly Hunk was getting, even just a tiny bit, more confident. If only he knew how badass he will be in the future. 

Yellow huffed with pride in his mind. ‘Come on, hurry up! My paladin is amazing, but focus on that later!’ 

‘Alright, alright, cool your jets, Yellow.’ Lance silently laughed. 

Lance led Hunk towards Blue’s little area as they talked. Blue’s partial barrier dropped as they approached as her jaw opened. Lance and Hunk slowly crept inside until they were in the pilot area. Lance got seated at the pilot’s seat as Hunk held onto his chair from behind. As he was preparing Blue, Allura’s face popped onto a screen. 

“Paladins! We are creating a wormhole now, Lance, Hunk, go into the first one. I will make a second one for Pidge and Shiro.” The princess informed. 

Lance simply nodded and closed the screen, flying Blue outside into space. He saw Hunk nervously meddle with his fingers. 

“Hey, man, you might want to hang on for this.” He warned. 

Hunk immediately went pale and gripped onto the seat for dear life, “Lance, no-“ 

However, Hunk cut himself off with a screech as Blue sped towards the wormhole. They saw swirls of black and pockets of white for a moment before reappearing in an area which looked like a valley of some sort. Hunk slowly let go, letting out a sigh of relief that he hadn’t puked. 

Lance turned around slightly, “Hunk, do you feel anything?”

His best friends frowned, “Feel what?”

“A feeling. Y’know, for the yellow lion.” 

“Oh! Um..” Hunk paused for second before snapping his fingers, “Yes! It’s like a warm fuzzy feeling? It’s near here. Go….forward.” 

Lance nodded, leading Blue forward. Not even in five minutes of flying, they were being attacked by a galra fleet. The cuban boy cursed loudly in Spanish, narrowing turning Blue to a side of a cliff. He had forgotten about this part. 

Hunk looked around frantically, squeezing his eyes shut. Lance sighed softly, trying to dodge all the lasers that were being shot at Blue. Now that he had personal experience with the galra, it was a bit more easier than it had seemed last time. However, without the other lions, it still made it a bit difficult. 

“Where do we go, Hunk?” The blue paladin managed out, dodging another laser beam. 

Hunk rubbed his temples anxiously, “Uhm- uhm- c’mon…east! Head east!” he yelled.

Lance nodded swiftly before turning Blue around where she could make narrow turns and fit into holes. Most of the galra ships blew into some cliffs as others remained put stubbornly. Suddenly, a beam streaked Blue’s body. He heard her wince in his mind. 

‘You okay, Blue?’ He asked through their bond. 

‘Yes, my cub. Do not worry about me, I will be fine. You and I both know this hasn’t been the worst I’ve endured.’

Lance silently agreed, turning Blue around suddenly to surprise the remaining ships. He went on to fire Blue’s own lasers from her jaw which caught the galrans off guard. There were around three left, but it wasn’t nothing he could handle. The blue paladin drove Blue towards where they had been previously then east. He let Hunk speak out the directions. 

“Uh…go…go north! No- wait- west! Yes! Now turn….here! We’re almost there..” Hunk spoke out. 

Lance could feel it too. Yellow’s aura was somewhere around here. It was close. Very close. The blue paladin blinked as he briefly turned Blue around. Good. There were no more ships on their tail. He let Blue hover over the ground and listened to Hunk as he directed them towards Yellow. Which each turn, he felt the yellow lion’s quintessence grow stronger and stronger.

Finally, they were met with an enormous tree with thick green vines wrapped around it. Hunk just stood still, stunned. He looked around frantically which made Lance very confused. 

“It…it should be here. I-where is it?” Hunk spoke out. 

Lance chuckled slightly, “Maybe it’s hidden over there? Doesn’t hurt to try.”

Suddenly, they both heard a beam shoot through the woods. Lance glanced up, turned around and met his eyes with Hunk. Hunk grew nervous of his friend’s intense stare as he let Blue down slowly. 

“Lance, what are you-“

“There are more ships coming, Hunk. I need to drop you off here so you can get to Yell- the yellow lion.” 

“Were you about to-“

“Not the time, Hunk. You need to go, and I’ll fight off the ships until you can join us. Don’t worry,” he added, smiling cheekily, “me and Blue can handle just fine.”

The yellow paladin hesitated fore a moment before nodding and jumping out of Blue, lading messily on the ground. He gave Lance a thumbs up before hurrying towards the tree. 

Meanwhile, Lance had turn around and fled towards the opposite side of the tree. There were now a dozen more galran ships in sky, aiming and throwing their lasers at him and Blue. 

He dodged, fought back, ran, and any maneuver he could muster. Lance was currently running from more galra ships than there were from the last; they were getting backup. The blue paladin was getting tired. Without the other lions, he had no backup to counter them. He had Blue couldn’t do this by himself. He knew she knew that as well. 

It hurt him to feel Blue hurt from the blows of the fleet. Not physically- of course. Well, yes, but actually no. Lance snorted at the meme that just flooded into his mind automatically. He cracked out a laugh, but it soon disappeared as he remembered what situation he was in. 

‘Yellow, please tell me you and Hunk are coming soon!’ He pleaded through his mind. ‘I hate to admit it, but we need a little help here!’

However, Yellow didn’t respond which terrified him. Usually, at least from what he noticed, Yellow would respond as fast as he could. He forced back his worries to the edge of his mind. What if he and Hunk were currently bonding? Lance didn’t want to interrupt something. 

The fight raged on for a few more minutes and Hunk still hasn’t showed up which worried Lance greatly. He and Blue were cornered. Hunk took a shorter amount of time last time. It was simple and sweet. Why did it change now? 

Lance could feel Blue’s confusion as well. She was as clueless as he was. 

‘I am, my cub. It usually does not take Yellow that long to respond.’

‘Good. At least I’m not going crazy with worry.’ He tried to joke as they got pushed more and more into the corner. Lance had tried to blast them off, but they kept coming. 

Blue chuckled painfully, ‘Maybe it’s you and me both.’

They had reached the edge of a cliff. Galra ships cornered them from all angles. Lance had honestly thought that this was it. He thought this was the end of the line. The blue paladin sighed and accepted whatever was going to happen. This was it. 

He prepared himself for the blast.

He apologized to Blue, to the lions, to his fellow paladins. 

He closed his eyes and accepted it. 

He waited for the flash of pain that would soon go through his body. 

He waited for Blue’s screech of agony from the hits. 

Nothing happened. 

Except for a yell and a crash. 

Lance rapidly opened his eyes just in time to see Yellow tackle the galra ships. He heard Hunk’s voice erupt from his earpiece. Lance almost winced at how loud it was but didn’t complain. He was just glad they were here. 

“Sorry for the wait, man! Are you okay?” Hunk asked frantically, worry lacing in his voice. 

Lance blinked, still a bit shocked, “Yea..Yeah, Hunk. I’m alright. That was awesome though! You and Yellow sure took your time though.” he laughed. 

Hunk’s face appeared on his screens. His not by blood brother’s face was tinted slightly red with embarrassment. “Sorry, Lance! Me and Yellow had a long chat, that’s all..” 

Lance immediately smiled but dug in his mind for Yellow, ‘You didn’t tell him, did you?’

A full heartily soft voice answered back, 'Of course not! We just had a talk about simple paladin stuff.’

‘You didn’t do that last time.’

‘I’m really sorry. I really am, but I needed to go over some stuff that I should’ve. It was my chance.’

‘Yeah, well….at least you guys made quite the entrance, am I right?’

‘Focus!’ Another voice called out.

Lance blinked, just missing a laser that was aimed at him again. He continued to fight alongside Hunk as he listened to the lions bicker. 

‘I leave for one second- one - and you guys are all chaotic again?’ Red groaned.

Green hummed, ‘You holding up there, Red?’ 

‘Galra ships suck. They won’t even keep their greedy eyes off of me! Little brats.’

'You also call Lance a brat. So do you to Keith and everybody else.’

‘Yeah, well, they’re good brats. There’s a difference between bad brats and good brats. They’re bad brats.’

‘Yes. Yes. Uh-huh. Yup. Sure.’

‘Oh, will you just shut up already?! Blue is way more annoying than you but damn.’

‘Black! Call Shiro! Red said something bad!’ 

Black just sighed, ‘Green, we’ve already established this. Just because my paladin knows how to use manners doesn’t mean you can make fun of him for it.’

‘Oooooh, burnnn!’

‘Blue! You’re supposed to be fighting! Shut up! This is the one chance that I don’t get to hear you!’

‘But Red.’

‘No.’

‘Fine.’

‘Blue, I want to offer an offering.’

‘Off-‘ Blue grunted as a laser hit her, ‘Offering? What is this offering, Green?’

‘We make a war against Red and Black. Yellow will be neutral. He doesn’t like fighting anyways-‘

‘Plus, I need to make sure you all stay in place.’ A soft voice said. 

‘Yellow!’ Two collective voices gasped. Blue and Green started to talk rapidly. 

‘Did he-‘

‘Oh my quiznack, he totally did-‘

Lance blinked as he and Hunk finished off the last of the ships. Lance heaved a sigh before slumping in his chair. 

“So….where do we go to get back to the castle?” Hunk asks, taking a breath. He was also out of it. 

Lance thought it over, “We should probably contact the castle to tell them we’re done. I’ll do it now.” 

He saw Hunk nod as he turned off the face-came view. Lance pressed a button on his dashboard. Suddenly, Allura’s face popped up onscreen. 

She immediately started to talk before Lance could get a word out, “Lance! Where are you and Hunk? Did you get the yellow lion? Are you two okay? Shiro and Pidge arrived minutes ago. Hold on, let me open a wormhole to your location.”

Lance just let out an ‘okay’ as he closed the signal. He notified Hunk about the wormhole incoming. They waiting for around fifteen seconds before a giant, swirly, dark wormhole appeared before them in all its glory. 

“Come on! Race ya!” Lance shouted, him and Blue already plummeting through the wormhole. 

He laughed as he heard a yell of, “Hey! No fair, you got a head start!”

Lance and Blue appeared at the side of the castle, Hunk and Yellow soon joining him. He grinned his trademark grin as always and flew Blue towards her deck. 

“You still cheated.” Hunk chimed innocently. 

“Well, maybe just a little bit.”

Hunk let out a snorted laugh. Lance smiled. It was nice to hear Hunk laughing again. He hadn’t heard him laugh for a very, very, very long time. It was nice. 

When Lance and Hunk arrived in the control room, they were immediately flooded with packed questions. Shiro, Keith, and Pidge. Shiro and Pidge asked Hunk questions while Keith fired at Lance. Lance, personally, didn’t think this was fair to Hunk. However, he didn’t have time to address this or speak up when he heard something from Keith.

“…do you know how worried we were you dimwit? Allura and Coran said that they couldn’t get a response out of you or Hunk! They thought something was happening!”

Lance blinked, surprised by Keith’s outburst, “Listen, Keith, it’s okay! I’m fine, see? Hunk’s fine too. Blue might be a little beat up, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle. Yellow is fine I think; maybe a few scratches or bruises.”

Keith just stared at Lance as if he was claiming that Shiro was stupid. After a few ticks passed by before the Red paladin sighed and muttered a ‘yeah.’. 

“So…” Lance coughed, trying to change the subject, “Did you find R- the red lion yet?”

‘Rude. I’m literally kidnapped and you call me ‘the rest lion’? I’m disappointed.’

‘Well, I’m sor-ry!’ 

Keith nodded, but his eyebrows furrowed stressfully. “Yes, but there’s a problem.”

Lance acted dumb, “Which is?” he prompted, although he already knew what the answer was.

“It’s on a galra ship. We need to get it back somehow.” The red paladin huffed, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Huh. Well, I’m sure Allura will find a way to get h- it. Either her, Shiro, or Pidge. I can’t really decide yet.”

‘Rude.’ Red hissed in his mind again. Lance just silently scoffed and pushed away the lion’s voice. 

“Why Pidge?”

Pidge, apparently, heard this and snapped her head towards Keith, “What do you mean, ‘why me’?” 

Lance chuckled, “Easy there, gremlin,” he turned back to Keith, “S- He’s one of the smartest people here most likely. I mean, he built his own computer for god’s sake.” 

Keith blinked, his face blank, “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know.” he says awkwardly.

Pidge shrugged, “Dude, it’s fine, take a joke.” 

Shiro, after scolding hunk, turned to Lance, “And YOU!” he rose his voice, point at Lance. “What were you thinking, fighting off so many ships like that? You could have gotten seriously injured. Just because we’re new, doesn’t mean that we can-“ Shiro sighed, lowering his voice, “Sorry. We were all worried about both of you.” 

Lance grinned, “No, Shiro, I totally understand where you’re coming from! Don’t worry.” 

Allura coughed, getting everyone’s attention, “Paladins. You must get to your lions. Keith, you will go with Shiro,” there was slight panic in her voice.

Hunk tilted his head slightly, “Huh? Why?”

The princess inhaled deeply, “A massive galra ship is just outside our premises. Our particle barrier can only hold up so much. We need the lions. Hunk, Lance, you will go over to the ship and pretend to surrender your lions. PThis will have them distracted. They do not know that we have the Green lion, so Keith will go with Pidge and sneak on the ship to get to the Red lion while they’re still distracted. Shiro, you will stay back until the Red lion is active unless an issue pops up. Coran and I will stay here and try to upgrade and readjust the castle the best we can.”

Everyone nodded and immediately ran in different directions. Lance hurriedly sprinted towards Blue’s hanger. He slid down swiftly and landed in the pilot seat. Before he left, he stopped dead in his tracks. 

“Blue, are you okay? Think you can handle a little bit more, gorgeous girl?”

Blue purred an affirmative in their bond. Lance grinned, flying her out and scanning out for Hunk. 

‘We’re a little to your left.’ Yellow says. 

Lance squeaked in surprise, almost jumping out of his chair. He held a hand over his heart and glared at the sky. 

‘Yellow! Don’t do that! You scared me!’ 

‘I’m sorry. Are you okay?’

‘Of course he is.’

‘I’m just being careful, Green.’

‘AAaaaand there they go again. The verbal lion Hunger Games at its finest.’

‘Lance, I appreciate this, but please focus.’ 

‘Yes, Mom.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Sorry, Blue.’

‘I forgive you, my cub.'

Blue laughed in his mind suddenly, as did the other lions. Lance found himself chuckling a little bit as well. He drove Blue to the left and found Yellow. The blue paladin turned the coms on. 

“Hunk, you there?” He questioned.

Hunk smiled, “Yeah, buddy. Let’s go, can’t keep them waiting!” 

Lance made an ‘mm’ noise in response and led Hunk towards the ship. It was absolutely….normal. He had forgotten how big the other, newer, better ships in the future were compared to the old ones. Lance cleared his voice and put up a speaker so that the ship could hear him.

Lance inhaled sharply, “Attention galra, we are surrendering our lions. We come in peace.” 

The ship tensed for a second before opening the hatch. Two separate small ships came before red lights flashed throughout the base. Lance smirked as he fired at the base, Keith must’ve gotten on already. He’ll have Red in no time. Hunk and Lance covered each other from blasts and attacks, defending each other. 

Suddenly, a blast hit Yellow’s back. No. Nonononoono. Hunk will be fine, right? He has to be fine. He couldn’t do this again. Not again. 

“Hunk? Are you okay?!” Lance yelled, panic erupting from his throat.

Hunk huffed from his side of the com, “Yeah, dude! I’m alright. Wait- Lance! You got someone aiming at you from behind you!”

Blue spun around and blasted the ship that was targeting her and her paladin. Lance heaved a sigh of relief and thanked Hunk briefly. Yellow flew past Blue and attacked the ship once again by tackling it. 

A voice spoke from the coms suddenly, revealing Keith’s voice, “Guys! I’m having trouble here! It won’t listen to me!”

‘It! He calls me ‘it’!’ Red barked saltily. 

Blue’s confusion reached her voice, ‘Red, didn’t this happen already?’ 

‘Yes, well, it’s also annoying every time! Red, do this! Red, come on! Ugh!’

‘Red, just this once, okay? We kinda need help here. Y’know, Blue and I.’ Yellow reasoned. 

Red huffed and Lance could hear Keith squeak. Lance laughed silently. He’s never seen Keith startled often. It was a rather cute sight to see.

Wait- ugh! Keith-thoughts outta this house! Not now! He reminded himself. He could feel the lion’s teasing glanced from here, even if their robotic bodies didn’t seem so full of life. Lance just internally groaned. 

‘Not a soul.’ He huffed in their quintessence bond. 

The lions just laughed in response, not really giving an answer which made Lance paranoid to no end. The cuban boy shook his head, glaring at Blue, glaring at Yellow, and glared in the direction of the castle and ship. 

A loud crash was heard from the side of the ship. Lance’s eyes widened, maneuvering Blue so he could see if anyone was injured. He wouldn’t allow any of them to get hurt. Not here. Ever. Call him overprotective, but he would never let anyone of his friends get harmed again. 

Lance could see a glint of red and white escape from the smoke rushing from the side of the ship. He sighed in relief. That meant Keith was okay. Good. 

Allura’s voice rang through his earpiece, “Paladins! Get your lions to the ship! We must all attack at once!” 

“Gotcha!”

“Already here!”

“Yeah, we could use a little help.”

“I’m on my way. Stay put.”

“Hurry up!”

The collective replies voiced over each other so is sounded more of ‘goalreadcoulldpup.’ Lance grinned as he saw Green and Black emerge from the castle. They all collectively fought the ship. Once in a while, they would have each others backs. Lance was deeply confused as why they weren’t working more as a team. The paladin sighed softly as he remembered why. He shook his head slightly as they saw the ship retreat. 

The ‘new’ paladins cheered as they saw it retreat. Coran and Allura’s happy voices filled his ears. 

“Great job, team!” Shiro commented with delight, “Let’s head back to the castle.”

Everyone sighed with relief and slowly flew towards the castle, clearly exhausted. Except for Lance. He was hyped. He had experience with long battles. He remembered this battle clearly from his memory that it lasted for two days straight. They could only stop to rest briefly, before being notified that there was another attack on a certain planet.

Lance slumped back into his chair, closing his eyes. Blue purred into his mind, assuring him that he’d be fine if he rested for a while. He smiled once again- he seemed to be doing that often today- and dozed off. 

‘We are so keeping him.’

‘Blue, he is your paladin, we’re never going to not keep him.’

‘I’m just saying it just in case, Black. We shall never get rid of him.’

Black laughed softly, his voice actually a bit cheerful, ‘Of course.'


	3. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lions finally explain.
> 
> Lance learns some things.
> 
> And the bonding begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait!
> 
> I don't really have an excuse for why except that the internet wasn't working for a day, so I apologize again!
> 
> But I swear that I'm not giving up on this fic until it's finished (whenever that might be.)
> 
> Anyways, enjoy another chapter!

Blue purred in his mind as Lance blinked awake. He yawned, stretching his arms before thanking his lion. Lance sloppily got out of his lion, waved at her, then went to go to the lounge where everyone was waiting. 

Hunk patted his shoulder, “You okay, man?” he whispered.

Lance flinched, forgetting that Hunk could read his friends very well, “Uh- yeah! Just a little tired, that’s all.” he assured. 

Hunk stared him down for a moment and gave him a look that read ‘we are talking about this later’ before turning away. Lance glanced down at his shoes, shame crawling up on his back. Saying that he ‘really’ didn’t want to lie to Hunk was an understatement. Hunk was like his brother- and of course, his best friend. They’ve known each other for so long, it felt wrong to lie to him. The blue paladin pushed the feeling away, sighing. 

The cuban boy didn’t listen much as Allura and Shiro went over on how good they were. He’s heard it over and over again when they first started and actually got things right. Keith, who was right next to him, elbowed him lightly. Lance blinked, glancing at the red paladin in confusion. 

“Start paying attention.” Keith muttered. 

Lance rolled his eyes, smirking. He averted his eyes towards Shiro, who was now speaking. He decided to pay attention; probably a good idea. 

“….ake a break until the end of the day.”

Allura butted in, “We expect you all to be up very early tomorrow! It is very important; we are starting our training exercises to form Voltron tomorrow.” 

The black paladin nodded in agreement. They both dismissed the paladins while explaining where their rooms were. Lance was the first to leave. He wanted answers. He entered the room, taken aback by the plain set-up. It was weird to not see his room decorated in posters and random junk. 

Lance plopped himself onto the soft bed, laying down comfortably. 

“Explain,” he said aloud. 

‘Which part?’ Green asked.

“Everything.”

‘Well,’ The small lion pondered, ‘Firstly, when you died, your quintessence was still very strong. It was also very determined. Of course, so were the other paladins. We have done this process with other paladins if we thought they deserved it. Sometimes, it went good. Other times, it went horribly wrong.’ 

“Wrong?”

Black interfered with the story, his voice firm, ‘One time, we chose one of Yellow’s paladins to go back. She had died with no oxygen to support her in the middle of space. She was determined to see her friends again and take care of them. However, she kept slipping up, dying, coming back, and she eventually went insane. The next time she died, we let fate take her.’

“Oh…I’m sorry, Yellow.”

‘It’s alright! She was a good person, honest, but she didn’t know when to give up. I’m still proud of her. Any who, we do this until we all agree that it cannot go on further or that the paladin is satisfied and won’t ask to relive their life again.’ 

“That’s…fair. So, can the others remember anything or..?”

Red decided to answer,‘No. For the most part, the rest of the paladins- and everyone- cannot remember. However, there was this one special occasion when a paladin went back in time and the others had bits and pieces of the last timeline. Other than that, no.’

Lance nodded, thinking before asking away again, “Alright. What about the whole bond thing? I’ve never had a big bond with any of you- except for, well, Blue of course.”

Blue chuckled, ‘It is because it requires all of us to turn back the “clock” as you humans call it. The bond grows stronger as our quintessence intertwines with reality and yours. The whole…possession stuff is something we can do when a bond has reached that. It’s when the lion and paladin both agreeably trust each other so much that they do with their own life- with their choices. That they trust their respectful lion to let them make their choices. Lance, you trust all of us with this.'

It was true. Even if they weren’t his lions, he trusted all of them to do what was best. If his friends spoke so fond of them; he could trust them. Maybe some people would call him too trusting, but it really didn’t matter to him.

Lance thought for a moment before blinking, “Is there anyone of something I should know about now that I’m here?”

The lions stayed silent at that. He could feel them push him away from them, muttering to each other. He could hear a faint ‘no’ and ‘but’ from them, but nothing more. After a few doboshes, he felt a sensation tingle in his mind. The lions were back. 

Green coughed, ‘Well, there is a prince. Prince Lotor, if you will.’

Lance rose an eyebrow, he had heard of the prince. Nothing in particular stood out to him though, “So? What’s up with him?”

‘He can be influenced easily; he can be pushed onto the wrong side with ease. Lotor might be the heir of the Galran Empire, but everyone either despises him or are completely in love with him.’ Black replied calmly. 

“Well, what do you want me to do about it? I don’t know where to find him- I-“

Yellow interrupted him, ‘No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want you to find him right away! Just…if you could possibly find him, tell him about Voltron. Don’t let Zarkon take control of his son.’ The lion sighed with sympathy, ‘He just wants to make his father proud…'

Red snorted, ‘Yellow, you sympathize with everything.’

‘I do-‘ Yellow huffed, then suddenly paused. Lance could hear the lion take a deep breath, ‘I do not sympathize with everything, Red. Just those who deserve to be sympathized with.’

‘Like- everyone?’ Green retorted. 

‘Yellow is right! There’s nothing wrong with it! Although I don’t appreciate his attitude, he didn’t do anything wrong that was on his own accord.’ Blue defended. 

Lance rubbed his forehead, grumbling to himself. It was nice having the lions talk to him and all, but it seriously gave him a headache when they continue to bicker at each other every five seconds. He face-planted into his pillow, squeezing it. 

‘Calm down everybody.’ Black intervened, ‘The decision is final. We will try to become allies with Lotor. No disagreements.’ 

‘But, Black-'

‘Red.’

‘Fine.’

“Anything else? Or do I have to listen to lions annoy each other for eternity.” The blue paladin groaned.

Blue piped up, ‘You can, um, sorta….how do I say this…Green?’

‘You are basically a ghost when you’re unconscious.’

Lance laughed awkwardly, “I’m a what?”

Apparently, Green didn’t get the reference, ‘Do I need to repeat myself? You literally turn into a ghost when you’re unconscious.’

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.” Lance held his hands up to the air, “How does that work, exactly?”

‘Since your quintessence is very unstable- going back in time and all- we support your quintessence. This means that fate doesn’t know where to put you- to live or not to live. Since we’re supporting it enough, you basically turn into a ghost. You get transparent, nobody can see you, hear you, or touch you except for us. If you could actually properly sleep, it would take too much of our energy.’ Pidge’s lion explained.

“Oh. Oh, wow.” The cuban boy said, trying to process this. “Okay, oblivious prince and ghost Lance. Gotcha.”

The lions laughed accordingly in his mind. It unusually sounded beautiful; like their voices were made to be in harmony. Suddenly, he heard a knock. Lance let out a yell of ‘come in!’ before the door revealed Allura. Lance blinked in surprise; what was she doing here?

The altean crept in silently, squeezing her own shoulders nervously. They stared at each other in silence before the princess broke the silence. 

“Lance, right?”

“Yeah! That’s me, beautiful.”

Allura’s face twisted, “Don’t call me that.”

Lance, on the other hand, grinned, “Sorry, it’s a habit I do with my sisters.”

Now she looked confused, “Sisters? You do this with your siblings? Do you humans commit to your siblings often?”

“No! No. If by commit you mean spilling tea with each other and only the hottest tea, then, yes, we do.”

“Spill the tea?”

“Never mind. You’ll learn soon. It’s something me and my siblings do for fun to test pick-up lines on each other.” He chuckled, “You can blame my older brother for teaching me.”

Allura’s face grew more comfortable as she nodded, “Ah, I see. Anyways, that is not why I came here.”

Lance tilted his head, moving his hand to push on the princess to say more. She continued, averting her gaze from him. 

“You seem awfully good at this…did you have any past experience? Only a few paladins my father has told me about could adapt to it easily. How do you do it?”

Lance blinked, “Uh. Well, someone needs to stay calm, right? I need to hold the team together. I know Shiro is doing a great job, but I can just see that he doesn’t have any clue what to do just like the rest of us.” 

The princess considered this, nodded, then grinned. She, surprisingly, hugged him tightly. Her embrace was as warm and tight as he remembered it. The cuban boy hugged back, closing his eyes briefly before pulling away from the hug. 

Allura coughed, “Well, Lance, you seem like a good paladin. A good friend. Do-“

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Lance asked jokingly, wiggling his eyebrows. 

The princess laughed lightly, pushing him away, “Yes, Sir Lance! Will you run away in the sunset with me as fireballs fall from the sky?” 

“Fireballs?”

“It’s from Altea.”

“Wow, I’ve forgotten that you guys are aliens-“

“Shush, you!”

The two burst out in maniacally giggles. Soon enough, they were wheezing. They both grinned at each other. 

Lance smiled softly, “You know, when you loosen up, you’re actually pretty fun, Allura.”

Allura laughed, “Thank you. We will talk tomorrow, Lance. Goodbye, Sir Lance.” 

The lightly dark skinned boy laughed loudly, clutching his stomach as he waved back to the princess. When she left, the door automatically closed. Lance calmed himself down before grinning madly. He changed into his nightwear that Coran had given them. The cuban boy was ready for whatever was going to happen when he fell asleep. 

When Lance curled up under his blankets, he faintly remembered him saying, “Holy shit, I can’t haunt everyone-“ before everything went black.

_________

Lance slowly blinked open his eyes. He immediately sat up and glanced around his room warily. Adjusting his gaze, he looked down at his hands; they were a pale transparent blue with tiny white dots in them. 

The boy stood up, sighing. What time was it? Did it really matter? As he turned his head around slightly, chills went down his spine when he saw his unmoving body. Lance quickly walked out of his room, phasing through his door. 

He let out a small shriek in surprise, expecting the door to open. The blue paladin quickly calmed himself down, still walking. Suddenly, he heard a loud thud from behind him. Lance turned around sharply, his breath hitching.

“Who’s there?!” Lance yelled, “Show yourself!”

A mutter of various voices collided with each other. The cuban boy backed away slowly, glancing behind himself before full on sprinting. He didn’t know who was in the castle or what was going on, but he needed to try and protect the castle at all costs.

A gruff voice yelled from behind him, “Come back here!”

Shit. 

Lance ran even faster, turning at every corner until he found a room that was far enough away. The ghost-like paladin panted as he arrived in the room. Only a few moments later he realized it was Shiro’s room. 

Double shit. 

The boy heard the voices arrive in the hallways. He swiftly put his hands over his mouth, not daring to speak. The voices got closer and closer.

“We lost him!” The gruff voice yelled. 

A high-pitched familiar voice responded, “No, you lost him! It’s your fault you scared him!”

A thought immediately popped into his mind. The ghost-like human poked his head through Shiro’s door. He was met by five shocked faces. A few screams from them rang in his hears. The thing that surprised him most was that they were all human. 

The person in the middle was a dark skinned tall, athletic looking male with jet-black hair and yellow highlights. He had a black t-shirt with the Voltron logo on it and multiple scars on his face. His eyes were bright gold just like his highlights. He wore white jeans with pockets on both sides. Bright teal marks streaked on each side of his cheeks. The man had black shoes with a tint of white at the end and a circle of white on the sides. He had short curly hair that stuck up from his head. The male had two large wings that replicated the Black lion’s wings completely. To top it all off, his eyes were cold- intimidating. It was almost like he was looking at a statue. 

The man on his left was small with short, messy red hair and light skin. Although it wasn’t ginger- just plain dark red. However, unlike Black, he had white highlights instead of yellow. He seemed athletic as well, but he didn’t have as much body strength as the other man. He had golden eyes as well which were narrow. Small teal lines covered both of his cheeks and his forehead.More tiny lines covered his knuckles and his knee. The man had a velvet vest on which had no pockets whatsoever. Under it was a simple black tank top. The short man had scars on his arms and neck which were slightly faded, but you could see them clearly. He had white shorts with crimson, thick lines on each side. He wore white and red running shoes.

On the other side of the presumably Black Lion stood a small pale woman with light green straight hair that went down to her neck. She had large glasses sitting on her head which had darker green highlights and bangs. Just like the others, she had golden eyes, but they were a little larger than everyone else’s. She had tiny blue marks just on her cheeks which almost touched her mouth. Another bright mark was visible under her chin as well. The woman had a dark green vest with a pearly white long shirt under it. She wore white leggings with multiple fern colored stripes going down it. She had a medium-sized shield on her back with black stripes that wrapped around her waist. Surprisingly, she was wearing green crocs and white socks.

Next to the green haired woman, a large tall man with dark tanned skin stood. His golden hair with orange highlights and yellow eyes matched very well. Unlike the others, he had multiple markings. He had a thin line of teal paint the edge of his cheekbones as small circles of the same color dotted his face. Along with the markings stood maroon colored marks at the edge of his head and his chin. Despite his body shape, his eyes were soft and forgiving. He wore a golden bandana on his neck patterned with amber shapes. A honey shaded tank top covered his chest. Baggy brown pants covered a majority of his legs while hiking boots with a canary color covered his ankles. He had white gloves laced with a pale yellow on his hands.

On the other side of the red-haired man stood a tanned woman with ocean blue hair and black headphones with white cuffs. Her golden eyes were soft but firm. She had no highlights, but if you looked at the side of her forehead, you could see a bright teal small upside down triangle. Her long, wavy hair was pulled up into a ponytail. On her hands revealed multiple dark blue bracelets and on her left hand, one single sapphire ring. The woman wore a beautiful no sleeved long black dress which turned into a beautiful navy color slowly and softly. To top it all off, she wore sky blue sandals and a short dark red scarf around her neck. 

The man in the middle rose one large hand firmly, “Everybody calm down. It’s just Lance.”

The woman with blue hair practically threw herself at him, hugging the boy. Lance smiled, it was nice to hug somebody like this. Her hugs were soft and not warm but cool. It was nice all the same. The woman pulled away, her golden eyes sparkling.

“My cub! Do you like our human forms? We would usually mimic the species of our paladins, but since y’know…” She trailed off, but then picked her conversation back up again, “The human body is very nice! It might be one of the best species I’ve turned into.”

Lance waved his hands frantically, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So…you guys are the lions?” 

The short green haired woman snorted, “Duh. Who else are we? Random alien cosplayers?”

The cuban boy barked out a laugh, “You’ve learned from Pidge too much! Oh my god-“ 

“I have learned a lot from my paladin, thank you very much.”

“Two nerds in the same place most of the time. Dear Alfor, help me with this bunch.”

Red scoffed, “Psh. Yeah right. My paladin couldn’t handle us.”

“Yes, he could.” Yellow interjected, “He was a nice man. Even though he was your paladin, he had a good attitude and was fair with the time travel.”

“Alfor went back in time? As in, Allura’s dad?” Lance asked suddenly.

Green nodded, “Yes. He used it to save Allura and Coran when the galra attacked since he could not in other timelines. He sacrificed himself to get his daughter and Coran to safety inside the pods.”

Lance paused, “Well, he sounds like a great person even more now.” he joked. 

“He was.” Red smirked slightly, crossing his arms. 

Blue giggled, suddenly jumping into Yellow’s arms who yelped out in surprise, “Carry me to victory, Yellow! We need to have fun around here! We need to stretch our limbs!” 

“Blue, gorgeous Blue, precious Blue, my little sister dork. I love you, but I am not carrying you anywhere. Ask Black or Red; they’ll do it. Me? Nadda.” He rolled his eyes as he dropped the woman. 

Blue shrieked as she hit the ground. She pouted at her fellow lion and stood up, punching his arm playfully. Yellow just stuck out his tongue, flicking Blue’s button nose. The lion flattened her dress as she glared at Yellow, though a tint of mischief glinted in her eyes. 

“So…do you guys know musicals or memes?” Lance blurted out randomly. 

Every lion turned to him, all of them nodding. The cuban boy looked at them with confusion and disbelief.

“Pidge.”

“You.”

“Hunk.”

“Shiro would ask about them.”

“Keith would complain about them.”

Lance’s grin widened as he led the humanoid lions to the living area. They all sang different songs from different musicals; Heathers, Hamilton, Mean Girls, Be More Chill, and such. For the rest of the night they referenced vines or memes at each other with no hesitation at all. 

In Lance’s opinion, it was an awesome night. 

_________________

Before he knew it, alarms boomed throughout the castle. Immediately, Lance screeched in surprise and found himself back in his room on his own bed. The paladin swiftly got his bayard and changed into some simple clothing. He knew this wasn’t an actual attack, but he didn’t want to have absolutely nothing like he did previously. 

When he arrived, everyone was already there. Shiro was in his armor, but he didn’t have his bayard as usual. Keith was in his regular clothes, Pidge was carrying their own laptop in their hands while Hunk was still in his sleepwear. 

Allura huffed, frustrated, “Paladins! What was that? Zarkon could have attacked the castle by now! We’d all be dead and that’d be because we didn’t get here in time! This is what I’m talking about; we need to improve your skills.”

Coran stepped forward, “Well! No time like the present! Paladins, go to your Lion hangers- we will meet you outside when you’re all there. Move along, now!” he urged.

The paladins walked off, talking with one another briefly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of blue hair sway past. Lance immediately stared at the spot where he saw the blue hair. 

'Blue?'

‘Yes, my cub?’

‘Why are you in your human form..? Not like I’m complaining or anything!’

‘Why are you asking- wait- ohhh. I knew I was forgetting something when you left! Sorry, I’ll get to it, my cub. We have to show off, don’t we?’

Lance chuckled internally, “Yeah, Blue.”

He saw the tanned playful face disappear as he slide down the hanger. He laughed as he slid down- he would never not have fun doing it. He plopped into Blue’s original form which seemed powered off. Only a few ticks later, her lifeless robot lion body was filled with excitement. They flew out and onto the platform. Hunk and Yellow arrived late.

“Sorry, guys!” Hunk apologized through the coms. 

“It’s alright, Hunk. We didn’t do anything without you.” Shiro replied. Hunk sighed in relief as Shiro went on, “Team, we need to form Voltron. How do you think we can do it?”

Pidge thought for a moment, “Well….maybe we fly in the same motion? Y’know- like fusing in Steven Universe!”

“Steven Universe?” Keith asked bluntly.

“Oh my god.” Lance gasped, “When we find out how to do some alien wifi, you are so bing watching Steven Universe with us-“ 

“Team!” Shiro interrupted, “Let’s do Pidge’s idea."

Everyone nodded and started to pilot their lions. They flew around in perfect motion which felt odd to Lance. Whenever they formed Voltron, it was just a task he did with ease. When somebody was in danger, they’d form Voltron automatically and fight off the danger. This felt wrong. 

After a few doboshes, Hunk sighed, “I don’t think this is working.”

“Maybe we have to stack them?” Keith supplied. 

Shiro nodded again. The team went into Voltron order and made a pyramid. Lance almost snorted as he was reminded of a cliche cheerleader pose. Of course, that didn’t work as well. The team tried and tried and tried before they bailed and decided to go back to the castle. They all sat in the living area, groaning.

“We’ll never be able to do it…” Pidge groaned, clutching her head. 

Lance patted her back encouragingly, “Don’t worry, Pidgeotto, we’ll work everything out."

Hunk just sighed, “I’m not sure, Lance. We’ve been trying for hours!"

“Don’t be such a downer, guys! We’ll find a way.” Lance smiled.

Pidge laughed, “Oh my god, that sounds so cheesy! Like we’re in an anime or something.”

“Would you imagine that? What would it be called? Voltron Legendary Defenders or something?” Hunk added. 

Lance clapped, “That is perfect! It has such a nice ring to it!”

Just then, Allura stomped into the room. “PALADINS!” She practically screeched, “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?”

Shiro got up, “We can’t form Voltron, Allura. We-“

“I don’t CARE! You need to form Voltron!” She snapped back. 

Coran came and places a hand on Allura’s shoulder, “Calm down, princess. I have ideas.”

Allura rose a brow, “Ideas?”

“Yes, we will do bonding exercises. They need to trust one another in order to form Voltron, right?”

“Well- yes- but-“

“There you go. They have only known each other for a day, princess. Give them a break.”  
Allura sighed, but she finally nodded in approval. Her shoulders slumped, looking at her feet sheepishly. Lance glanced at Coran and nodded at him. The altean man seemed to get the message and went on, “We will start with the famous training exercise! Follow me, paladins.”

Everyone glanced at each other and Lance took this time to sneak up behind Allura and ruffle her hair. The princess squawked in surprise, turning around sharply before her face softened. She giggled quietly, shoving the blue paladin slightly. 

“We are so doing a spa day when we get this over with,” Lance whispered to her.

Allura grinned up at him briefly, “After you all get your butts down there and train? Sure. You’ll be more exhausted than me anyways.”

“Well, how do you expect I got such muscles?”

“Muscles? In your dreams.”

“Oh, hush, you!”

Hunk and Pidge glanced at them curiously then went back to whatever nerd stuff they were talking about. Shiro was making conversation with Keith as they followed Coran. Man, Lance forgot how big the castle was.

Allura and Lance continued to talk. Lance tried his best to get her to calm down and laugh, which worked, surprisingly. He wasn’t prepared for her to not be so stubborn and comply. Before, Allura would snap at him if he even mentioned her taking a nap. 

When they arrived in the training room, everyone was looking around- especially Keith and Shiro. Lance internally snorted. And here’s where the training obsession began. Coran spun around and twirled his mustache. 

“Well! We will be doing a training exercise. You will all gather over there,” he motioned to a small circle in the middle of the training deck, “and gladiators will come. It is your job to protect your fellow paladins with a shield. You will need to trust that they will protect you as much as you’ll protect them.”

Everyone nodded and started to huddle around the circle. Suddenly, each of their bayards transformed into shields which showed the color of their lions and armor. Lance glanced at Keith and smirked at him. Keith huffed and turned his head away swiftly, seeming to grip onto his shield tighter. 

“Now!” They heard Allura yelp from the other side of the deck.

At once, a machine started to shoot at the team. Most of them were holding their own, sure, but nobody was really working as a team. Hunk, who didn’t see a blast coming from behind him, yelped as the floor underneath him vanished. The yellow paladin flew down to a dark abyss. Pidge was next, she had fallen down and was hit by another beam. The green paladin fell, too. 

“Lance, cover me!” Keith grunted, blocking another blast.

The cuban boy hummed, “Gotcha,” and blocked a beam of light from Keith’s right side. 

This time, Shiro was the next one to go. He was caught off guard by the many beams that were fired of him. The black paladin lost balance and dropped to his doom. Keith and Lance were the only two left. They were both working in sync and protecting each other. Lance’s eye caught a glimmer going straight for Keith’s back and acted immediately. 

He was back on the battle field. Haggar was in font of them. She had her nasty ball of dark magic swung at Keith’s back. He watched as his boyfriend shuddered and sank to the floor. He won’t let that happen. He won’t

Hewonthewonthewonthewonthewonthewonthewont-

Never. Again. 

Lance felt himself get blasted by whatever they were throwing at them. Surprisingly, the fall was rather fun. He felt a sudden wind blast through his face- it was cold, sure, but he felt free. He felt like he was flying. Of course, he did that almost everyday, but physically flying on his own.

The blue paladin found himself onto a mattress that was sown with blue and white lace neatly. It was rather comfy and the design was amazing. It showed a complex pattern that was traced with white as the others were a sky blue. Lance looked up and saw Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran, and Shiro watching Keith on the deck. Keith was looking around frantically as the machine stopped. 

Allura stepped forward, “Good job, Keith. That was very good. Although, you all could have worked more as a team and more less of fending yourselves. You are Voltron. You are one; you need to learn how to work together properly!”

Keith fell through the black pit, but he was now in an empty room. However, it was a trick. Lance remembered the invisible maze. And it was absolutely horrific to go through. They could see him clearly although the red paladin couldn’t see them. Allura smirked at Lance. He knew that smirk. Oh no. 

She found out.

Her grinned got wider as Lance felt the color drain from his face. Thankfully, the others didn’t notice, but they prompted Allura to continue. 

“Since you and Lance did so well,” She said, honey swirling into her tone, “he will lead you through the maze. Lance knows the map, and if you touch anything at all- you will get a shock, so I suggest you two work together. Each of you will pair up and take a turn, but they will go first."

Lance stepped forward, glaring at Allura who was silently snickering. He cleared his voice and looked at the map before saying, “Go straight for two steps and then turn left.”

“Two steps?” 

“Yeah, around two steps. Don’t bump into anything, Mullet.”

Keith snorted and did as he was told. Surprisingly, the instructions went smoothly and they only bickered a few times before getting back to work unlike before. When he was finished, he promptly sent the look at Allura coldly. Keith fell onto the mattress and met up with Shiro. 

Pidge and Hunk went next with Hunk going through the maze and Pidge guiding him. As Coran, Shiro, and Keith talked, Allura and Lance were having their own little chit chat. 

“You little twerp; you did that on purpose!” He huffed, his face turning slightly red. 

Allura grinned, “Of course I knew! How could I not?” she lowered her voice, “You practically make it so obvious that I don’t know how your fellow paladins didn’t see it!”

“They’re oblivious and I’d like it to stay that way-“

“You like him!”

“I so do NOT!”

“Awwwh, you’re in lo-ove!” 

“Ew! No!” He huffed, his face now redder more than ever.

He didn’t even know if this Keith would even like him at all. What if he was different? What if he was just putting up with him because he just had to? Lance didn’t know. And Lance didn’t want to ruin the friendship that was going on. 

“Admit it!”

“No! I do not like anyone! You’re imagining things!”

“That’s what they say before they ki-iss!”

“Shut up!”

“Awh, what’s wro-“

Suddenly, at perfect timing, a certain red paladin said, “Hey, Lance? Allura? You two okay? Lance, you’re looking a little red.”

“I’m fine!” Lance responded, crossing his arms and glaring at Allura. The princess just pushed her hands to her mouth and muffled her giggles.

Keith frowned at the blue paladin, his eyes flooding with doubt before sighing and turning around. He went back to talk with Shiro, but he kept a close eye on Lance. 

Allura whispered to him in a hushed voice, “You so like him. I can see it so much-“

Lance responded in the exact same tone, “Shush! I am not! And besides…even if I did, he doesn’t like me!”hg  
“What are you talking about? Do you see how overprotective he is? When you fell down, he practically went crazy!”

“He did not! He was just worried for a fellow paladin! That’s all!”

“Oh my quiznack-“

They heard a gasps as Hunk fell onto the mattress with an-

“Oof.” Pidge grinned, saying the reference out of complete nowhere.

Lance snorted, watching as Hunk racing towards them. He was talking frantically about the maze. Of how it was awesome, amazing, and terrifying all at the same time. As he was blubbering, Shiro fell into the ground and landed in the maze. Allura took it as her job to step forward and take the job. He saw a dreamy grin sweeping on her features. Lance smiled like a maniac. 

Allura caught his glance and her face turned into horror. She narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to laugh or say a word. 

Lance mouthed, ‘you like him.’

She huffed and turned around, her altean marks glowing slightly as her cheeks flushed with a bright pink. 

Lance rolled his eyes and turned back to Hunk and Pidge. Keith joined the group awkwardly and shuffled towards them. The asian boy turned to him. He scratched his neck as his dark hair slumped onto his shoulders.

“You were great in the maze.” Lance commented, urging his heart to not leap out of his heart this very second.

Keith’s violet eyes gazed upon his ocean blues, “Thanks. I wouldn’t have known where to go if you haven’t told me where to go. You did great, too.”

Pidge blinked, “In this world, Hunk,”

“It’s yeet or get yeeted.” Hunk and Lance said in perfect harmony. 

Pidge’s eyes widened, her eyes glinting with amusement. She started to laugh her head off and tumble to the floor. Keith looked generally confused, looking at each of them for some kind of translation that might help him understand what was going on. 

“That-“ she croaked out, calming down, “was amazing.”

Hunk and Lance grinned at each other before speaking together in harmony again, “Thank you, we’ve been practicing for the last sixty-nine years.” 

Pidge laughed even harder while Keith looked more and more confused. He tried to desperately figure out what they were saying and what they meant. Eventually, he gave up and hopelessly watched his fellow paladins with utter confusion.

Shiro came falling from the ceiling and onto the mattress. He stood up and nodded at everyone else, a small smile on his face. He blinked in Allura’s direction and his smile got a little wider. Allura shied away, hiding behind Lance. 

“You got a crush…” he whispered in her ear.

She yelped and pushed his face away while he laughed. “If you spill a word, I will put things in my hands-“

His face went pale, “You wouldn’t-“

“I would.”

The two glared at each other for a moment before realizing that everyone else was gazing at them. They shuffled awkwardly and looked at Coran who was reading a book that he seemingly got from nowhere. 

Coran looked up and his eyes sparkled, “Good work, paladins! This will help with your bonding for Voltron! Come on now, we will move onto another task.”

The team followed him back into the lounge area. Allura decided to speak this time, “Take a seat, paladins.”

Oh no.

The mind meld. 

This wouldn’t end well. 

Allura stepped forward and turned around so she could see the paladins, “This is a bonding exercise that the paladins over the generations have used often. Right now, you will all sit down in a circle and put a headset each on your head. Coran and I will monitor you all as it is done.”

“What is it used for exactly, Allura?” Pidge asked. 

“It is used to share thoughts, but with imagery. Often, it was used to get offending forces to come clean of crimes and such. Other times, it is used simply for fun.” The princess supplied. 

Pidge nodded, however, she looked a little nervous. Lance blinked- right, this was where Pidge ran off. The blue paladin let in a breath. What would he think about? He couldn’t think about the future- or- past of the future? It was confusing. But still, he couldn’t give anything away.

Everyone sat on the ground, slowly applying the invention on their heads. Lance fiddled with his fingers anxiously. He watched Coran from the side, who was monitoring everything. The altean man looked up at Allura and nodded slightly. 

She continued, “This is a way for the paladins to get to know one another easier, quicker, and bond more. We will start with-“

“Why can’t we just talk with each other?” Lance questions, laughing awkwardly afterwards. Pidge hummed in agreement. 

Allura shook her head, “It won’t strengthen the bond as much, and this will put you into the minds of your teammates so you can trust them easily. Now, if we don’t have any more interruptions, we will start.” she glanced away, walking towards Coran.

Lance internally laughed, but then the happiness was gone as dread swallowed him up. He couldn’t screw this up-

‘Stop being so anxious! We got this, don’t we, Black?’

‘Green, we’re tampering with Lance’s mind too much. We can’t-‘

‘Come on, it won’t hurt anything or anyone!’

‘Red, we might damage his-‘

‘Black, I’m the smart one here if you haven’t forgotten. I don’t think this will damage his brain. Unless we do this five times a day, he’ll be fine.’

‘I’m just worried-‘

‘I know, but-‘

‘Uh, guys, explain?’ He asks in his mind.

‘Don’t worry about it, my cub.’ Blue reassured. 

“Lance, Pidge, focus.” Shiro says. 

Lance heaved a breath. He could see the garrison images from Shiro, food from Hunk, and a home from Keith. Pidge’s mind was flickering. He could feel it. He began to panic again again. 

‘Guys, I can’t do this- what if-‘

‘Calm down, my cub.’

‘Lance, let me-'

“Pidge! Lance!” 

Pidge squirmed and threw her helmet onto the ground. “This is stupid!” she yelled, storming away. 

“Pidge-“

Lance stood up as well, placing the helmet down with his hands shaking slightly,“Yeah, I’m out too. This is pointless.” he huffed, spinning away.

“Lance!”

However, the blue paladin didn’t want to hear about it. He stomped out of the lounge, half angry and half anxious. He probably made a fool of himself- no- he did make a fool of himself. What would they think now? That he was a coward? That he was weak enough to not do a simple exercise? 

He could hear the lion’s pleas in his mind for him to listen. However, he pushed the five voices to the back of his mind. He just wanted peace and quiet right now. He didn’t want to listen to the lions right now. He knew they had good intentions, but he didn’t want to hear it. 

He continued to walk down the halls, hugging his shoulders. Finally, the paladin stopped and huddled against the wall of the hallway, his head down as he hugged his knees. Lance heard footsteps creep towards him. His immediate thought was the lions, but then again by the sound of it there was only one person. 

Stop being so selfish-

And here come the bad thoughts.

The footsteps suddenly stopped and he felt a presence beside him. The presence came closer to him and he heard a slump. The cuban boy just hugged his knees tighter. What if it was Hunk? He would question and try to comfort him to no end. Allura? She would interrogate him so much until he would crack. Coran? That actually didn’t sound so bad, except it probably would be just Hunk’s reaction. Keith? Oh god-

“Hey, Lance?” Great. Of course. 

The boy didn’t reply, he just shifted away from the red paladin. He could imagine Keith frowning at this and almost snorted at the mental image. Keith came closer, patting his shoulder awkwardly. 

“Lance, answer me.” He softly demanded. 

“Mmm.” Was all he got as an answer. 

The asian boy sighed, “Lance, please.”

Lance snapped his head up, “What?” his voice wavered slightly as he glared at him. 

Keith looked taken aback, “Are…” he paused, as if he didn’t know what to say, “Are you..okay?”

The blue paladin let out a dark chuckle, “Do I look okay? If I was okay, would I be here? Away from everyone else?” 

“Good point.” Keith tried to joke. He fell silent again but put a hand on his shoulder, “Lance- what’s, uh, what’s wrong? I mean, um, uh, eh, yeah. What’s wrong?”

“You suck at this.”

“I’m trying, okay!”

“Pbbt. Yeah, yeah.” Lance smirked. 

“No, but, I- ugh. I’m not good with emotions, alright?”

“I’ve noticed.” 

“Shut up!” Keith exclaims, hitting his arm playfully.

Lance smiled. It felt nice. It felt nice to talk to Keith again without them bickering. It felt nice to be even comforted by him. He missed this. He missed this so goddamn much. Lance closed his eyes from a few moments before opening them again. 

Silence flooded in between the two paladins. Lance sucked in a silent breath. He leaned towards Keith’s direction and his head plopped onto Keith’s shoulder. The boy closed his eyes again, letting his exhausting thoughts slip away slowly. Lance felt a strong arm awkwardly wrap around him. This just made Lance smile wider. He always liked Keith’s awkward hugs. They were oddly comforting. 

They sat there for a few minutes. The blue paladins opened his eyes once more, letting the light in the hallway fill his view. He caught a sight of Keith, who was still looking at him with worry. He chuckled as he saw Keith’s cheeks get slightly red. Keith removed his grasp from Lance and just sat there. Lance stood up straight, looking directly at the wall. He felt his own cheek’s temperature rise.

He stood up, “I’m ready.”

Keith rose brow at him, “Ready? For what?”

“To leave. We can’t leave them hanging, right? Sorry I burst out like that. It was rude to everyone else there.” He apologized.

Keith shook his head frantically, “No, no. It wasn’t your fault, Lance. Shiro- uh- shouldn’t have pushed you that much.”

“And Pidge.” Lance added.

“…And Pidge,” Keith slowly nodded.

The two of them started to walk down the hall, making small chit chat as they did so. Once they arrived, Lance was met by the bewilder expressions of Allura, Coran, and Hunk. Hunk immediately got up. 

The yellow paladin started to talk, “Lance, buddy! Are you okay? I’m so sorry-“

“Hunk, don’t apologize.” Lance interrupts softly, a small grin plastered on his face, “You didn’t know this would happen.”

Allura just looked at him, as if trying to read him like a book. She glanced at Keith, then she stifled a laugh and turned her head around. Her cloud-like light blue hair fell softly at her shoulders. 

A few minutes later, Pidge came back awkwardly with Shiro at her side. They explained that they both talked things out. Coran nodded thoughtfully and waved it off. A warm smile formed onto his lips. 

The altean made his way towards the exit, “Well, that will be all for today. Let’s all go and eat, shall we?”

Everyone nodded and walked towards the dining room. Each of the paladins sat down in a seat. However, the alteans didn’t sit down. Lance frowned, weren’t they hungry at all? As the green goo flooded the table in its glory, the alteans didn’t move. Instead, they were smirking at each other with a certain glint in their eyes. 

Hunk grinned, “Awh, man, I’ve been waiting for this!” then his smile faltered slightly, “Even though…it’s…goo. Still food!” 

As Hunk reached out to eat, Shiro let out a surprised yelp. Everyone turned to see the black paladin’s arm being pulled by Hunk’s arm. There were bracelets on each of their wrists that were connected to the paladin next to them. 

Lance smiled. How could he forget this? It was probably one of the memories that were his happiest. Before he knew it, a food fight broke out. Goo went flying everywhere around the room. They were all laughing at each other as they threw the goo around. 

When the food fight eventually ended, everyone broke out into laughter again once they realized they were also splattered with goo. Allura and Coran were looking at each other with knowing look and soon followed the paladins into fits of giggles. 

The blue paladin closed his eyes, wishing that this moment would last forever. For once, everything felt normal again. He felt as if he hadn’t gone back in time. As if he wasn’t doing this again. As if his friends hadn’t died. 

For one peaceful moment, everything was perfect.


	4. Adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura and Lance go on a little adventure outside of the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, first things first. 
> 
> I AM SO SORRY
> 
> it's been a month and I????
> 
> i'm so sorry. 
> 
> now, i dont really want to be that one author who always says, 'school blah blah blah.' 
> 
> BUT i was sick for a while and i had a major writers block. i am so sorry that i didn't post sooner! i'm still keeping to my promise as to complete this. if i don't post in the next,,,lets say,,, two weeks? if i past that limit, then, well, y'all can always annoy me with it :') i deserve it tho
> 
> anyways, enjoy this chapter! i'm, again, sorry that it's not as long- 
> 
> ok, im done talking im so soryr-

“Not the hair; not the hair, man!” 

Hunk laughed as he lowered the wooden spoon that was covered in goo. Lance gave a mock glare at his best friend as he tried to fix his hair. Both of them were covered in food completely. Hunk wanted to try to make food that could be as similar to human food as possible. So far, they had little luck, but they had a lot of fun. 

The yellow paladin smiled as he went back over to his concoction of a “soup”. “This seems to be turning out well. What do you think, Lance?” 

“Seems great!” Lance exclaimed. “Wonder what it tastes like?”

Hunk merely shrugged as he went back to adding spices to the soup. Lance watched his best friend as he brushed goo off of his shirt. He hummed along to a random melody as he did so. Suddenly, they heard a yell. The two paladins exchanged a glance before running towards the source of the noise. They were met by a startled Keith and an angry Allura. 

“…they’re not that bad, Keith! Geez, how could that be dangerous?” Allura was saying. 

Keith crossed his arms. “It could! You never underestimate something by size, Allura.” 

The princess gestured to the air angrily with her arms. “I’m not! It is apart of Altean culture that! That species isn’t dangerous unlike the galra.“ 

Lance looked up onto the altean tech screen as they came to the living area of the castle. He almost snorted at what he saw. It was just an arusian hiding in the bushes. Not that he underestimated them, of course, they were actually quite fierce when they wanted to. But knowing that they were completely harmless adding to Keith saying they were dangerous to them was hilarious. He knew for a fact that the arusians would protest at the thought of harming the “moon goddess”. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Hunk interjected. 

Keith simply pointed at the screen. “That could be a threat to Voltron! A spy! You don’t know that!” 

Lance sat down on the long couch as he watched the bickering go on. He watched as Shiro and Pidge stroll in, confusion etched onto their face. Allura huffed with anger and went to sit beside Lance as the others tried to get the red paladin to calm down. She hanged her arms onto the back of the couch as she groaned. 

“I don’t see how you like him,” Allura grumbled under her breath. 

Lance just chuckled sheepishly. “Well, maybe we’ll never know. It will be a mystery forever.” 

The two tanned teens watched as it went on. Lance patted his sibling-like friend on the back to calm her down. She let out a sigh as she rubbed her head. Once he was sure that she had calmed down, Lance stood up. His hands laid in his jacket pockets lazily. Lance stood up and turned around. 

Allura glanced up at him. “Where are you going?” she questioned. 

“To check the little guy out. We can’t leave ‘em hanging, can we?” Lance shrugged. 

The princess nodded. “I’ll come with you.” she insisted. 

“Alright. Let’s get to it then, Princess.” Lance flashed her a grin. 

“Oh, yes, Sir Lance! Let us go.” Allura laughed as she bumped his arm. 

They made their way down the castle as they made small talk with one another. They each shared stories of their family mostly. Lance looked at the wall as he heard Allura talk. It was nice to get to know her more like this. 

‘Checkmate.’ a voice said smugly.

There was a sound that oddly sounded like desk slamming that flowed into his ears. Lance covered his ears slightly with his hands as a hiss of pain escaped him. Allura tilted her head in confusion and worry at Lance’s sudden reaction. He waved his hand at her to urge her to continue with her story. Allura just gave him a hard stare before continuing. 

‘Red, apologize to my cub at once.’ an angry Blue demanded. 

However, Red didn’t seem to hear. ‘Green, you b-‘

‘Red!’ Black snapped. ‘Profanity.’

‘Are you playing mental chess?’ 

Lance could hear the amusement from Green. ‘Yes, Lance.’

‘How?’

‘Shush, little blue kitten. The world is too complicated for you, my cub.’

‘Blue!’ 

His lion laughed as he and Allura approached the castle gates. Allura opened them slowly and glanced outside, her ears twitching slightly now and again. Suddenly, an arusian popped out of the bushes and pointed a small knife-like spear at them. The princess’ eyes widened in shock before softening. 

The arusian took one glanced at Allura, blushed, and bowed immediately. “Moon Goddess! I did not know you were here..” she looked up. “You can save us! Our village! We’ve waited so long, Moon Goddess. It is an honor to be in your presence.” 

Allura seemed flattered and overall surprised by the gesture. “Moon Goddess? Your Village?” 

“Yes!” she nodded, pulling down one of the bushes that revealed a small painting of a woman who looked much like the girl. “It is said so! You can help us from that- that- beast!” 

“What beast?” Lance expressed his thought.

“The monster!” The arubian shuddered. “It’s very big…has wings! The eyes…so nerving!” 

Allura tilted her head slightly to the side. “Wings? What do you mean? I assure you, we will try to help as much as we can.” 

The arubian looked up at her and nodded. She turned and started to run off towards a different direction. She looked back at them and gestured for the two to follow her. Allura and Lance glanced at each other for a moment before coming to a silent agreement. They both followed the small alien with cautious footsteps as the arubian continued to talk on and on. Finally, they arrived at the small village. It was as homely and warm as Lance had remembered it. 

The alien waved her arms wildly. “Sir, I found her!” 

An elderly arubian looked up, (The king, Lance’s mind supplies). He narrowed his eyes at his subject before they widened as he looked at Allura. He immediately came forward and bowed at her. His subjects were now looking at her as well and came to bow, too. 

“Moon Goddess,” he rasped, still bowing. “you have come at last! We have waited long for your arrival.”

“It’s Allura, please, and I am honored to meet you.” The princess replied. “Now, I do ask, why have you been waiting for me?” 

The arubians whispered to each other as the king rose up. “Why, to stop that foul beast, of course! That treacherous beast that has been shone throughout our prophecies! You are to stop it…”

“May we see a picture if you have any?” Lance cut in curtly. “We may recognize it.” 

The king nodded and ledthem to a small rock wall. To be fair, Voltron did seem intimidating in the painting. It showed Voltron and Allura together. There was another painting next to it which was Allura in a goddess-like mater. 

Allura stared at them, stunned for a moment, before finding her voice. “I…well…these painting are lovely. However, Voltron is with us. It means no harm, I assure you.” 

“Voltron?” The king echoed. 

Lance nodded. “Yes, it’s a giant robot with wings and stuff. Oh, and there’s weapons!” Seeing the king’s face, he quickly added, “No, no, no, no, no, it’s to fight against the galra! We would never use it on innocent people!” 

Allura jabbed him in the gut with her elbow and promptly glared at him. “I was with you until you said “stuff”. You need to get better at talking formally, Lance.” 

Lance mock gasped. “I’ll have you know I talk formally perfectly! I think my speech was great, thank you very much.” 

The king stared at him for a moment before letting out a chuckle and nodding. “If you and the Moon Goddess say it’s not a threat, I believe you. But, I may ask, what do you mean by we?” 

“It’s Allura, please, sir.” The altean insisted. “And we mean us, Coran, who is my advisor, and the rest of the paladins of Voltron. There are five in total.” 

“Why did the other four not come?” Quizzed the king. 

Lance shrugged. “We kinda ditched them.” 

“Yes, I suppose we did.” Allura laughed. “It was for a good cause! They were being ridiculous.” 

The king smiled. “Do you wish to stay with use for a feast? We still need to prepare the dance for you two.” 

Lance shook his head softly. “No, thank you. Not right now, but later, yes, defiantly. We want to bring our comrades here as well. I’m sure they would love it here.” 

“Please, it would be our honor.” The king went on. “Just for a night. It is getting dark, Moon Goddess. You must not go out in the dark; it is dangerous.” 

Allura seemed to consider this before nodding. “I suppose one night won’t hurt. I thank you for your hospitality, sir.” 

The king adjusted his robe. “Do not thank me, Moon Goddess. We thank you for all of what you have done for us. We owe you more.” 

Lance laughed. “Say that after something happens! Don’t worry, we’ll defiantly have your side, but we haven’t done anything yet! Give us credit where we deserve it.” 

“Well, we must set up the feast, for we need to rejoice! Finding this discovery is an achievement for us, Moon Princess.” The king paused. “Now that I do think..what should I call you?” he directed this at Lance. 

The blue paladin thought for a moment before grinning, “Moon prince.” he settled on. 

Allura gasped. “Hey, that’s my nickname, you thief!” 

“You didn’t claim it! It’s not that you can own a name, ‘Llura. Besides, it’s Moon Princess and mine is Moon Prince.” 

“Fine,” 

The king watched the exchange with amusement glinting in his eyes. He lead them to a dinner table off to the side of the village. Everywhere there were arusians celebrating, dancing, yelling, and eating. Pictures snapped everywhere and the two sibling-like friends were having a great time. When dark came around, they watched the dance they preformed. It was silly, but it was the thought that counted. The king led them to a spare hut near his own. He reminded them to call either of the arusians if they had any trouble. There were two beds on opposite sides of the hut; one was on the left while the other was on the right. The two got settled and soon drifted off to sleep in each of the beds that they chose. Lance grinned as he fell asleep; it had been a fantastic day. Absolutely fantastic. 

“La-ance,” A sweet voice cooed. 

Said boy jolted up and was met by the human form of Blue. She looked excited and full of energy as she was shaking his ghost for and yelling. Green was watching her, rolling her eyes. The small woman adjusted her glasses which were still onto the top of her head. 

The paladin almost screamed, clutching his heart. “God, Blue! A little warning, will you?” 

“I said your name,” 

“That’s not an excuse!” 

“Hey, you two shut up for a second! Geez, mother like son. Black, Red, and Yellow are waiting outside.” Green huffed, crossing her arms. 

Lance and Blue giggled with one another and slowly walked outside with Green following them. As promised, Black, Red, and yellow were waiting just outside of the small hut. Seeing them, Black nodded in acknowledgment, Red grunted, while Yellow smiled at them cheerfully. 

An idea came to the paladin’s head. “Guys,” 

Green looked at him and immediately said, “Lance, no, I know what you’re thinking.”

Blue grinned. “I also know what he’s thinking, and I say go for it, my cub. Be mischievous! Do it! I believe in you, and I support it!” 

“Blue, you are such a bad role model,” Black deadpanned. 

“Agreed,” chimed Red.

Blue laughed out loud while pushing Blue towards the exit. “Go on, my cub. If you get lost, we’ll find you.” 

“Unlikely,”

Yellow shoved his fellow lion slightly. “Green!” 

Green just stuck out her tongue. Not wanting to hear the future argument, Lance swiftly walked into the woods. He guided himself easily, reminding himself of the path he had used numerous times before when the paladins and himself visited the arubians when the had the chance. When he finally arrived at the castle, he fazed through the walls easily. He abruptly stopped when he heard voices. The paladin frowned. What was anyone doing this late up night? 

As he got closer, he heard Shiro’s voice. “C’mon…C’mon. Agh! Where could they be?” 

Another voice, Hunk, answered anxiously, “Shiro, man, calm down. I’m sure they’re fine. They’ll probably turn up tomorrow.” 

“What if they don’t, huh, Hunk?” Snapped Keith’s voice. 

“Shut up! I’m trying to find some locations they could be in!” Pidge’s voice growled. 

Coran’s voice echoed through the halls. “Paladins! I am worried too, but we need to focus. We need to find them soon. If they do not show up tomorrow, we go searching.”

Lance came into the living area where he saw a stressed Shiro, an angry Keith, a tired Pidge and Coran, and a nervous Hunk. Lance felt a pang of guilt in his chest. They shouldn’t worry so much…if only they knew. They would probably kill Allura and himself once they arrive back at the castle. No doubt about it. 

Shiro rubbed his temples. “Yes, I agree with Coran. We need to…” 

The blue paladin pushed away his guilt, although it still hung over his head. The paladin felt a small grin sweep upon his features as he crept forwards. He slowly reached his hand over to Shiro’s face and flicked his puff of white hair. However, much to his disappointment, his hand went through his face. Shiro stopped talking abruptly and shuddered slightly. Lance grinned wildly. Maybe the prank wasn’t such a lost cause after all. 

“What’s wrong, Shiro?” Hunk asked, noticing. 

“Nothing, nothing.” The black paladin assured. 

Lance laughed slightly and rolled his eyes. Of course Shiro would say that. He always did have a habit of assuring people nothing was happening when something was. The paladin readied himself and full on ran straight into Pidge who yelped out loud. She jumped up in surprise and tumbled straight into Hunk. The yellow paladin made a choking sound and fell off the couch with Pidge not far behind him. 

Pidge looked up, snapping her head to every part of the room. “I felt something. It was really weird. Did anyone do that?” 

“No..” answered Keith slowly. “Are you sure you’re not hallucinating?” 

“I’m not!” she snapped, adjusting her glasses as Hunk moaned on the ground. 

The blue paladin smiled and jumped at Keith, attempting to hug him. Keith yelped and squirmed away towards Shiro more. Lance laughed at the pure horror-stricken face of the red paladin. He looked as if he saw Coran trying to do earth slang. It was hilarious. 

Keith eyed his last position warily. “I…did someone hug me?” 

“Now you’re going mental,” Pidge sighed. 

“I am not!” 

Lance snickered as he crept up behind Pidge and attempted to grab her glasses. She shrieked and fell, her laptop slipping from her grip before she caught it again. Her glasses were now askew as she looked around wildly. Keith rolled his eyes as she readjusted her glasses. 

Pidge glared at everyone in the room. “You all saw nothing, you hear me? Nothing?” 

“You got it, Pidge,” Hunk let up a thumbs-up while he laughed quietly. 

Shiro sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Can we please focus on finding Allura and Lance? We’re getting off topic.” 

The air got more tense and awkward, the laughter fading from Pidge’s and Hunk’s eyes. They both nodded and went back to whatever research they were trying to do. Coran hummed an altean song to himself as he scrolled through the castle footage. Suddenly, he cried out in happiness. The paladins looked at him with an odd look. 

The altean man grinned. “Paladins, I have found something! The security footage in the halls and from outside the castle had caught something!” 

“What? What is it?” Keith jumped up from his seat to move over to Coran. Everyone in the room did the same, looking over each other’s shoulders. 

Lance peeked over and saw that there was, indeed, security footage of Allura and himself. It showed him and the princess leaving the room, walking through the halls, and leaving with the arubian. Keith furrowed his brows as did Shiro. Lance snorted at the resemblance that the two had even if they weren’t related by blood. 

Shiro was the first to speak. “They…they left willingly?” he asked, disbelief edging in his tone. 

“Yes, and it’s not surprising,” When the other paladins looked at him incredulously, he continued, “The arubians are a common race that the alteans had peace with. They are one of our many allies.” 

Hunk thought this over and finally heaved a breath of relief. He straightened up awkwardly and fiddled with his fingers. “Well…if they’re allies..then won’t they be back by tomorrow? I think it’s safe to assume that they won’t do anything bad to Allura and Lance if that’s the case.” 

“But what if they changed? This could be a trap- or- or- or a trick! To lead them to Zarkon!” Keith stubbornly assumed. 

Coran shook his head. “I highly doubt that. With the relationship the arubian king at the time had with King Alfor, it is highly unlikely. They were close friends, those two.” 

Pidge snapped her laptop shut. “Well, that settles it. I’m tired; I’m going to bed.” 

“You can’t be serious!” 

“Keith, leave it,” Shiro placed his metal hand on the red paladin’s shoulder. “I trust Coran. If they’re not here by morning, we’ll go searching for them.” 

Keith finally nodded reluctantly and crossed his arms. Everyone talked to one another for a few more minutes before each of them parted to their own rooms separately. Lance spied on them each for a minute or two before going onto the next person. He wanted to make sure they were okay and safe. Of course, he knew the castle was tough and could take a few hits, but it didn’t stop him from worrying. Once he was certain that they were all asleep, Lance ran out to join the lions. Like the night before, they all goofed off and had some fun. At the moment, they were sitting in a circle playing never have I ever. Right now, Yellow was, surprisingly, winning the game. 

Red tapped his hand on the floor in concentration. “Never have I ever…had makeup on my face.” The lion grinned as Blue, Yellow, and Black huffed. 

“Wait, Black, you had makeup on? When was this?” Green snickered. “Did Blue get to you too?” 

“Yes, yes she did.” Black sighed in defeat. 

Meanwhile, Blue had her hand clutched above her heart in mock anger. “How could you! You use makeup against me? Oh, you were just targeting me, weren’t you?” 

Red smirked. “I admit, yes, I was. However, I wasn’t expecting to get the others as well.” he laughed. 

Yellow merely shrugged as his turn came around. “Never have I ever rebelled against my first paladin.” 

All of the other lions groaned out loud and glared at Yellow. Lance laughed at their faces and high fived him. Blue shifted her glare at him as the others rose a brow. 

“You think this is funny, do you?” Blue pointed a finger at him. 

Lance laughed, “No, not at all! What’s funny? I don’t think anything’s funny.” The blue paladin let out a shrill yelp as he was tackled by the lion. 

Red crossed his arms. “That was unfair and you know it, Yellow,” 

Green nodded. “For once, I agree with Red. That was uncalled for! I thought that we were friends, Yellow, I really did, but apparently we’re not.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Yellow snorted in response, “you all are such sore losers.”

Blue got up and fixed her hair once she was done wrestling with her cub. Lance laughed and tried to muffle it when he saw Blue glance back at him. Black chuckled softly, shaking his head at the other lion’s antics. 

Green let out a mock gasp. “Yellow! We thought you were an angel…apparently not!” 

“He’s the devil in disguise.” Lance pretended to look sad. He let out another chuckle as Yellow nudged his arm with his elbow. 

“Oh, hush, Lance.” Yellow rolled his eyes. 

The night continued like this until they all eventually got bored and started a sing off. They were all split into teams of three. Team one was Black, Green, and Blue. Team two was Yellow, Lance, and Red. They went song after song. They didn’t have anyone to tell which team won, so they agreed that Lance would ask Allura. The lions glanced at him with confusion when Lance suggested it, but he simply brushed it off. It went from pop song after pop song. Lance learned things about the lions that he never knew. For one, that Black knew Ariana Grande, and that Red knew about Taylor Swift. It was fantastic, really, watching the lions being so competitive with each other. Soon enough, a shade of pink, purple, orange, and yellow lit above the horizon. Lance smiled slightly as he looked at his hand; it was fading slowly in the air. The lions glanced at him and said their goodbyes. The paladin closed his eyes and opened them again. He was back in the hut on the guest bed, Allura only feet away from his right. He grinned and sat up, jumping out of bed. He ran over to Allura and shook her awake. 

“‘Llurraaaa!” Lance whined, dragging out her name, shaking her again. “Wake up! Wakey wakey, rise up and shakey.”

However, Allura just groaned and rolled over. “Go away, mom.” 

Lance gasped in mock shock. “Mom? I don’t act like a mom, do I? Oh, you are going to pay for that!” 

“Go away.” Allura muttered again. 

“Fine!” Lance huffed as he bent down. He shuffled on his knees and leveled his mouth to Allura’s ear. Taking a deep breath, he bellowed, “RISE AND SHINE, PRINCESS! WE GOT STUFF TO DO!”

Allura let out a scream as she nearly jumped up five feet in the air. She was now huddled against the wall, staring at Lance with fake loathing. Lance giggled at the pure look of her face. She looked so surprised and annoyed.

Allura growled and glared at him. “You have three seconds before I come over there and make you wish you never found the blue lion.” 

Lance tried to scramble away but to no avail as Allura threw herself at him. He let out a squawk of surprise as they started to shove and push each other. There were several ‘ows’, ‘you’re stepping on my hair!s’, ‘don’t put your foot on my face!s’, and ‘stop that!s’. Apparently, they were making too much of a ruckus because they found a worried king checking up on them. 

“Moon Princess? Moon Prince? What are you two doing?” The king questioned carefully. 

They both got up immediately and glared at each other. “I’m sorry if we awoke you, sir,” Allura apologized. “If this idiot hadn’t woken me up, there wouldn’t be such noise. Right, Lance?” 

Lance rolled his eyes. “Well, a certain princess was too lazy to get up and move.” he countered. 

“Well, that certain ‘lazy’ princess needed rest.” 

“However, if I may intervene, we got plenty of sleep the past few nights? Unless there is something you’re not telling me, Princess?” 

“Are you implying I’m staying up at night? Doing what?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe you have some company with you. I know that you wouldn’t hesitate having a certain black paladin in the same room as you.” 

“Why you—“

The king cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Moon Princess, Moon Prince, but when are you leaving?” 

The two looked dumbfounded before Lance shook himself out of it. “We’ll leave in a few ticks, sir. We left without the knowledge of the other paladins and Coran. They must be worried sick.” 

Allura nodded. “Yes, we’ll pack up some of the gracious presents you have given us. Which, of course, we’re thankful for. You guys didn’t have to.” 

“Nonsense,” the king assured, “we are honored that you enjoy our gifts, Moon Princess. Please, do come again with the other paladins, will you? I am sure they are as great as you two.”

They both thanked him as the king left. They each carried a small wooden basket filled with a variety of things. Allura was holding a basket full of fruits while Lance had various pieces of fabric in his. They both said their goodbyes as they left the village. The arubians chatted with them for a few minutes before they left. Now they were following a path to the castle. Allura and Lance were exchanging stories on the way; they were bored, after all. When they arrived at the doors of the castle, Allura knocked on the door. 

“Coran?” she called, “It’s us; it’s Allura and Lance. Can you let us in, please?” 

At once, the doors flew open. The paladins and Coran were running down the halls to meet them. Hunk came up and hugged Lance so tightly that Lance could hardly breathe. Of course, everyone scolded them for going out without them knowing. Once they were done, they went on as if nothing had happen. As they strolled the castle halls, they filled them in on what they missed- if anything. 

Lance laughed as he heard the stories of the “ghost”. Allura looked flabbergasted and turned away, her face reddening. The blue paladin tilted his head slightly at her reaction. Once she heard about it, she kept muttering underneath her breath. However, she was whispering too softly for him to hear. A feeling of anxiety began to well up inside him. What if she found out? What would she say? But then again, how would have found out? Unless she somehow could do it too? The paladin shook his head slightly. He shouldn’t be thinking about it; right now, that should be one of his lesser problems. 

He felt someone tap his shoulder. Turning around, he was met with the violet eyes of Keith. How did that even work in the first place? Violet eyes? Was it because of the galra genes? A soft rumble in his mind brought him back to the world. Lance blinked as Keith dragged him aside. The others seemed to be too caught up in their conversations to notice. Keith led him to the training deck and glared at him as the doors slid shut. 

Lance looked around. “Keith? What’s this about?” he asked. 

Keith scoffed. “What is this about?” he repeated. “What is this about? Oh, I don’t know, you and Allura sneaking out of the castle? What is wrong with you two? You do realize you could’ve gotten hurt, right? You seriously lack brain cells, McClain!” 

“Keith, calm down. It’s nothing, really.” he winced as the words came out of his mouth. Keith looked slightly red in the face.

“Calm down? No, what if something happened to you two? Do you realize what you would put us through if you two disappeared? Voltron-“ 

“Oh, so this is about Voltron now, huh? You don’t want me and the princess hurt because of Voltron?” snapped Lance.

Keith furrowed his brows. “No, you idiot! This has nothing to do with Voltron! This is about you two worrying us to death! Do you know how stressed we were? Do you?” 

Lance was tempted to yell at him that, yes, he did, but he refused to. “No,” he answered lamely, “but I do know that you were sort of overreacting.” 

“What? Overreacting? You two disappear and me being worried is overreacting?” growled Keith. “You know what? Fine! You two can disappear and do whatever you want; I don’t care.” 

Lance silently cursed himself. Him and his big mouth. “Keith, no, that’s not what I meant…” he trailed off. 

“Not what you meant? Then what did you mean, McClain?” 

Lance swallowed. “Well…ugh, god. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I worried you. We shouldn’t have ran off.” he rubbed the back of his neck. 

Keith let out a sigh. There was silence between them, and it was irritating them both silently. They were each in their own worlds; both of them were staring into space. Keith looked like he trying to calm himself down while getting angry again as Lance looked like he was debating with himself. 

Finally, Keith spoke. “It’s…It’s fine. Just…just don’t do it ever again, alright? You scared me half to death there, sharpshooter.” 

Lance’s head snapped up. With a shaky voice he murmured, “Sharp…sharpshooter?” 

“Uh, well..” Keith’s face heated up, “You, uh, have a gun, right? Sorry, it just came to my mind. I wasn’t thinking. It kind of came out of nowhere.”

Lance narrowed his eyes before smiling and patting Keith on the shoulder. “Sharpshooter; I like it.” 

They headed down the hall once again, talking with one another. Still, the nickname buzzed through his head. Sharpshooter. It was one of the many nicknames the team had given him back in his timeline. He was confused. Keith shouldn’t have remembered that. Lance didn’t even use his bayard that much. How could that have happened? 

‘Fragments of the past timeline.’ Green’s voice popped up out of nowhere. She sounded oddly out of breath. 

Keith looked at him oddly when Lance nearly jumped up five feet in the air at the random answer. He apologized to the red paladin immediately, his face reddening. Keith just rolled his eyes and chuckled slightly at his antics. Lance quietly cursed the small lion. 

‘Green, I swear to god, if you had been any louder I think I would’ve died. Also, why are you out of breath? Something happen?’ Lance thought. 

He could practically feel Green’s shrug. ‘Eh, oh well. And it’s a long story.’

‘Short version,’

‘Race. Bet.’ 

‘Long version,’

‘Make up your mind, will you?’

‘Oh, shut up,’ 

Green laughed, ‘We made a bet if you guys would start to have a heated argument. Red, Yellow, and I said yes; Black and Blue said no. We lost so we had to race each other around the castle. First person who got to the finish line is free from punishments.’ 

‘Punishment, eh?’

‘Yes. The punishment was to be bathed in…in…lemonade.’ Green shuddered. 

Lance almost laughed out loud. ‘Why are you so disgusted with lemonade, Green?’ 

‘It looks like pee, Lance! Tell me you would drink something that fucking looks like pee!’ Green exasperatedly said. 

‘Let me guess; Red won?’

‘Yup.’

Lance inwardly groaned. ‘That cheater. He’s fit and he didn’t even exercise before he got the whole human body thing!’

Lance could feel the head shake from there. ‘I know, I know.’ 

When Keith and Lance arrived, they found everyone was focusing on Allura’s explanation. She was talking about the arubians. Lance strolled in, a hand on his hip. The princess stopped her story abruptly and rose a brow at him. Lance just grinned sheepishly and made a tiny gesture to Keith. Allura grinned wildly. 

“Oh, and you wouldn’t have guessed what Lance did at the village!” Allura smirked at Lance’s horror-stuck face. 

Lance ran up and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Nu-uh. No way. You are not telling them that.” 

“Tell us what, Lancey-poo?” Pidge smirked evilly. 

Hunk joined in. “Yes, loverboy, what happened?” 

The said boy had no time to respond to the nickname when Allura laughed. She pulled the hand off from her mouth as she giggled, “He danced with the arubians at the ceremony. Oh, goodness, I don’t think I’ve seen them that shocked. Let me tell you, he’s got moves!”

“I do not,” Lance defensively denied. 

Shiro’s head perked up. “Lance? Would you mind showing us your dancing one of these days? I’m rather curious.” 

“Yeah, sharpshooter, show us! Can’t be too bad, can it? Okay, wait, I take it back; it can be that bad.” Keith smirked. 

Coran nodded. “I would like to see how you humans dance, Lance.” 

“Ugh, you guys are terrible! Worst space family ever!” Lance whined.

Allura jabbed him in the ribs. “Hey, we’re the only space family you got, twerp!” 

The cuban boy intertwined his fingers together and looked at the ceiling pleadingly. “Oh, god, please let another space family find me and adopt me! I can’t stand it here anymore! It’s terrible and dreadful! Please, god. That’s all I asked.” 

“Lance, don’t be like that! We’re a great space family!” Hunk interjected. 

“Traitor!” cried out Lance, “You were supposed to be on my side! But..but you went to them instead! How dare you! I am hurt and offended, Hunk. I disown you as a brother.”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a drama-“

“And I’ve got nothing to say to you! You’re always the mastermind of these things! Also, Lancey-poo? How unoriginal is that?” 

“It’s a great nickname, thank you very much!” 

“Okay then, Pidgeotto.” 

“I am not a bird Pokémon.” 

“Then what are you?” 

“I dunno…maybe a…”

Hunk piped up. “A Rattata?”

“No!” Pidge and Lance almost screamed at the same time. 

The joyful space family laughed at their own antics. They talked and talked all night. They all decided on meeting with the arubians again the next day. It wouldn’t be long, and that would give them time to prepare. For the rest of the day, Lance hopped from one person to the next, trying to help as much as he could. He would be cooking with Hunk, inventing with Pidge, sparring with Keith, talking with Shiro, messing with Allura, and exchanging stories with Coran. He would now and then go to his own room for a few minutes and chat with the lions before repeating the cycle. It was a great day overall. Lance got a spa day with Allura, Hunk and him made a sort of chocolate cake, Lance beat Keith at sparring, Lance learned that Shiro listened to Lady Gaga, and he also now knew that Coran used to be quite the delinquent in his days. Not to mention the playful arguments between the lions. Sometimes they would be completely random and utterly unimportant. Ironically, it was the so called “wisest” lions that got into the most trouble. Lance had forgotten about the nicknames for now; he decided that he would ask them later. Not today, though, he chimed himself. Of course, he didn’t want to bother Green with questions every single day. Just give her a day break, he had thought to himself as he approached his room. The lions need space, too, after all. It wouldn’t be fair to them. As he got ready to go to bed and placed his face mask on, he hummed too a melody. He plopped onto his fluffy bed and started to drift off. As he was doing so, he heard some murmurs from the back of his head.

Suddenly, a cry came out. ‘BLACK! Green said a no-no word!’ Blue exclaimed.


	5. Explosions, Arusians, and Bickering, oh my!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out fate sometimes goes the same route. But, as fate goes when you're back in time, thing are a tad different this time around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay guys. 
> 
> i goofed up on two accounts. 
> 
> one: i did "aruBians" instead of "aruSians"
> 
> now, i know it might not be a big deal, but for whoever is a major fan of grammar; i'm so sorry! guess that's what happens when you write while you're tired 24/7. 
> 
> number two: i was looking for the chapter (which i was writing) and found it. you know how i found it? finished. yup. i didn't even send it out and it was finished. again, i'm so sorry! 
> 
> anyhow, enjoy the chapter!
> 
> (also, if it's short, i apologize as well!)

Honerva slowly crept out of the shadows, approaching Zarkon. She held her hood up tightly and glanced up at the emperor. Zarkon wasn’t facing her. Instead, he was facing his hand. From where she could see him, the emperor was smirking. 

“My lord? You have asked to see me.” Honerva decided to make her presence known. 

Zarkon turned around, the twisted smile still on his face. “Ah, yes, Haggar, I do wish to speak to you.” 

“Which is?” prompted the druid.

“I have seeked out the black lion,” Zarkon began. 

Honerva stared at her husband. “Have you had any luck, my lord?” 

“Quiet,” snapped Zarkon, “As I was saying, I have tried seeking out the black lion’s aura. However, I have found something quite interesting. There seems to be another paladin to be acquaintances with it.”

The druid croaked out, “The black paladin? The new one,” 

“No,” Zarkon’s grin got wider, “the blue paladin.” 

“Blue- the blue paladin?” a shocked Honerva stuttered. 

Zarkon nodded. “Yes, the blue paladin. Now, I have an order for you.” 

“Yes, my lord?”

“This paladin seems...different. He seemed like he knows our plans. I have seen and heard what my soldiers have reported. I need you to capture him. We’ll go back for the black paladin as well, but we need the information. Whatever he may know will be important to us. If the paladin does know our plans, it could ruin everything.” 

Honerva bowed her head. “When do you wish me to do this, my lord?” 

“During our ambush on their so called ...allies, I want you to capture him. I don't care if you do it personally or not, but just get the job done. Distractions are great, no? While you’re going back, do keep an eye on the black paladin as well. We still need him. Not yet, though. It is far too soon. 

“Yes, my lord,” Honerva muttered, stalking away. 

“Oh, and Honerva?”   
Honerva froze. 

“Do work on our weapon, will you? And keep more tabs on Lotor; I still want to know where he is, you know.” 

The druid simply nodded and hurried away. A smile played onto her dry lips as well as a twinkle in her golden eyes. Yes, she thought, this is simply perfect. Absolutely perfect. Just wait, dear princess, you will meet your doom. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Lance snickered quietly looking at a certain green paladin’s back. Apparently, Pidge didn’t notice him yet. The pilot crept up behind her, let out a sudden yell, and shook her shoulders lightly. The green paladin let out a small scream and stumbled forward. Lance let out a spasm of laughter as she glared daggers at him. She bent down to pick up her bayard which was now laying on the floor. 

“Lance, I will kill you,” Pidge hissed once she got up. 

The cuban boy laughed and ran off, Pidge close on his tail. Allura and Shiro were watching them with amused looks as Pidge tackled him to the ground. He let out a squawk as she hit him lightly. Hunk laughed as he watched the exchange while Keith looked confused as always. Lance flailed around and held his hands up in surrender. 

“Pidge, Pidge! Gah, stop hitting me!” 

Pidge smirked, “Or what, loverboy?” 

Lance thought for a moment before saying out loud, “I’ll help you explore the castle when we get back if you get off of me?” he offered. 

Pidge seemed to ponder this for a moment before nodding, satisfied. “You’ve got a deal, sharpshooter.” 

Lance groaned as he got up, “What is with the nicknames?” he whined, “You guys are never going to let that down, are you?” 

“Nope!” said Pidge in a sing-song voice as she bounced off towards the exit of the castle. 

Shiro laughed, “Alright, alright, settle down. We still need to meet the arusians, remember? Come on, we don’t want to keep them waiting, do we?” 

The team continued to joke around and talk with one another as Allura led them through the path. Coran was chatting with Hunk, Shiro and Pidge seemed to be deep in conversation with one another, which left Allura, Keith, and Lance to talk amongst themselves. Allura kept smirking at the pair in which Lance would give a death glare at her. The princess suddenly slowed down so the two paladins could catch up to her pace. 

“So, what do you think of the arusians now, Keith?” Allura questioned. 

“We get it; you were right, and I was wrong,” Keith grumbled. 

The altean fluttered her eyebrows in mock innocence, “Huh, me? I didn’t accuse you of such a think, my dear red paladin! I was merely asking what you think of them is all.”

‘They bicker much, those two,’ Black hummed in the blue paladin’s mind.

Lance jumped slightly, but it thankfully went unnoticed by the others who were too into their own conversations. ‘Yeah, they’re at each other's throats all the time. Do you remember when Keith accidentally hit her in the face at training last time? I thought he’d never hear the end of it from her. ‘Keith, you are not to harm your fellow paladins during the fight! Be more careful next time! Now, again!’’ he mimicked. 

‘Seems like Red’s cub can't help but getting in trouble, right?’ Blue teased. 

Red’s dramatic voice immediately replied, ‘My cub is great, thank you very much. He just gets carried away at times.’

If Black could mentally nod, this would be it. ‘Good point, Red. It’s the same as the other paladins as well. They each have their faults.’

‘I don’t want this to turn this into a pep-talk!’ called out Green, whose voice seemed to be far away. 

‘Green, what are you doing?’ a curious Yellow inquired, in a hope to change the subject.

‘Working,’

‘Green,’

‘I’m working, Yellow,’

‘I get that, but please be more specific?’ 

‘I’m studying,’

‘Wow, the green lion- studying! I never knew!’ Blue mock gasped.

‘Shut up, Blue,’

‘Now, now, children,’ chided Lance in a high-pitched voice, ‘be nice,’ 

“Moon Princess, Moon Prince, welcome back!” 

Lance was snapped out of his chat by the king. The old arusian walked towards them and gave them each a small smile before noticing the group of people they brought. He tilted his head to the left slightly before his grin grew. 

Allura bowed down before tilting her head up again at the king. “Sir, we’ve brought the paladins today. What do you think?” she glanced at the rest of the paladins, who did nothing. “Hem, hem.” 

Pidge reacted first. “What? Oh! Yeah, uh, my name is Pidge, I’m the green paladin.” 

“I’m Shiro, and I’m the black paladin,” Shiro introduced himself. 

Hunk laughed nervously, “Hi, I’m Hunk! I’m the yellow paladin,” 

“Keith. I am the red paladin,” 

“And you guys already know me!” Lance chuckled. 

The arusian king cocked his head to the side again. “Who might you be--” he paused once he saw Coran. “Coran, my old friend! How have you been? When the Moon Princess said her royal advisor’s name was ‘Coran’, I never thought it would be you. My, you don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you!”

“It is good to see you as well. Never did I think that you’d still be around after more than ten-thousand years! We must catch up, old friend.” Coran seemed more relieved and more relaxed now that he saw another friendly face. 

Lance tried to hide his confusion by lowering his head. He didn’t remember this. This didn’t happen last time, did it? ‘No, I’m pretty sure it didn’t…’ he thought to himself, ‘everything is so different yet the same. This is so confusing,’

The arusians happily welcomed them back again and chirped happily at the newcomers. Allura and Lance watched with amusement as the other paladins tried to minimum the questions that were fired at them. Meanwhile, some arusians came back to talk to them again. 

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Allura spoke out during one of their conversations with some of the arusians, “why do you call me ‘Moon Princess’? Not ‘Moon Goddess?’” 

One of the arusians, Kalypso, shrugged, “It fit with Moon Prince’s name. Besides, the king told us you didn’t like to be called a ‘goddess’ or worshiped, right?” 

“Well, yes, but--” 

“There you go then. Now, Princess, let me braid your hair. Turn around, please. You do want to impress that black paladin, do you?” Kalypso looked entertained by the look of shock on Allura’s face. 

Blushing heavily, Allura shot back, “How did you-” 

“Kalypso and I had a little chat maybe. Besides, the way you’re looking at Shiro- anyone can tell, Princess.” Lance snickered. 

“Lance, I will choke you.” Allura growled as Kalypso hummed to a merry tune, braiding her hair. 

The blue paladin made a ‘shh’ noise, “Yikes. Second threat I got today.” 

“Oh, and you must let me put flowers in your hair, Moon Prince.” Kalypso said out of nowhere, still focused on Allura’s hair, “You must look presentable for the red paladin.” 

Now it was Lance’s turn to blush. “I don’t know what you’re talking ‘bout,” 

Allura laughed out loud, “Yes, you do! If I have to go through this, so do you, you twerp!” 

“Hey! I resent that! I am not a ‘twerp’.” 

“Uh-huh, sure.” 

The rest of the morning went along very well. Allura and Lance chatted with almost every arusian, them being very social with them now. The rest of the paladins seemed to warm up with them very quickly. Coran and the king were found catching up with each other at every given moment. Sometimes, the paladins would hear snippets of conversations they had. And, for the record, none of them understood anything- except Allura. When they asked her about it, she would mutter something about humans. Abruptly, a boom echoed throughout the village. They left around afternoon with Shiro offering them to come to the castle in a few vargas. When they arrived at the castle, Hunk, of course, went straight to the kitchen with Coran to prepare the dinner. Lance dragged Allura to do the decorations with him while the princess complained about how they didn’t need them. However, Keith and Pidge decided to do their own individual work doing Alfor knows what. 

“It’s pointless!” Allura grumbled as she put up banners with the cuban boy. 

Lance scoffed, “Nonsense! You’re just being lazy, ‘Llura! I know you’re a princess, but work!” 

‘The guy who begs for her to take a break now tells her to work.’ snorted Green. 

Lance rolled his eyes, ‘As if you’re one to talk, work addict. Works all the time and yet never does any physical exercise. Shame.’ 

‘Hey, I got this body like a day ago, okay-’ 

‘Not an excuse!’ 

Allura huffed and finished putting up one of the banners. “I’m just saying they won't care--” 

“And I want to make the castle look nice!” Lance interrupted. 

“Fine, fine,” the princess sighed before putting up more decorations. 

Once they were done, Lance excused himself. Allura brushed it off easily as he walked down the hallway, leaving the altean princess by herself. He went inside his newly renovated room and dropped down onto his bed. He smacked his head against his fluffy pillow which muffled his groans. 

‘My cub, what are you doing?’ cortled Blue. 

“Trying to sleep,” Lance mumbled. 

‘It will only be a few doboshes until the arusians will arrive, you know,’ Lance could feel the eyebrow raise from Red from there. 

Lance’s grip on his pillow tightened. “Just a few minutes,” he whined. 

‘And they’re here,’ Green chimed in. 

“Great. Thanks for the support, guys.” the cuban boy grumbled. 

‘Anytime, Lance,’ Red, Green, and Blue laughed in unison.   
As he got out of his room, Lance muttered, “That was really creepy, guys. Never do that again-” 

“Lance?” 

Said boy turned to see Shiro, scar and all, coming down the hallway. “Yeah, Shiro?” 

The leader hesitated for a moment, “Were you...talking to somebody?” 

“No, just talking to myself. Nothing to worry about, Shiro.” Lance assured, “What’re you doing down here anyways?” 

“Looking for you,” the black paladin replied casually, “The arusians already arrived. You coming?” 

Lance nodded. “Yea, I’ll be right there. You go ahead, Shiro.” 

Shiro stared at him for a few more ticks before turning away and jogging off. Lance let out a sigh, rubbing his temples once Shiro was out of his sight. He had to get to the crystal before Rover could. To be honest, he had practically ignored Rover this time around. Lance passed ball-room like area, trying to go unnoticed. As he was edging towards the exit, he felt something grab his wrist. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” 

Lance turned his head and was met with Keith’s face. “Uh, just looking for something. I think I left my bayard in the training deck.” 

Keith rose a brow. “Since when did you go to the training deck? Also, why would you need to have your bayard?” 

“Well, you can't be too unprepared. That’s what Allura said anyways. Now I’ll be going, Keith.” he emphasized on the going part. 

The red paladin narrowed his eyes at the other paladin before reluctantly letting his wrist go. Yet his eyes seemed to say ‘If you don’t get back soon, I’m going to hunt you down.’ Lance, on the other hand, anxiously strolled out of the large room. He was simply amazed by the crystal when he finally arrived at his destination. He had forgotten what it had looked like. Lance never had time to explore or be adventurous during their plans for war. Nonetheless, he missed exploring and hanging out simply in the castle alone. 

A familiar voice rang around the room, “Number three, what are you doing here?” 

Lance let out a small chuckle as he turned around. “What is with everyone and sneaking up on me today? First it’s Shiro, then Keith, and now you.” 

“Well, my boy, that does seem like an odd coincidence. Again, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out with your fellow paladins?” 

Lance’s blue eyes drifted towards the crystal. “Dunno, just...homesick, I guess.” It wasn’t a lie, either. He just honestly wanted to go home. To go back. 

Coran’s face softened as he placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder, “We all get homesick, my boy. You will see your family soon, I promise.” 

“You lost your planet, Coran, and practically every altean in the galaxy. My problem is nothing compared to yours,” the blue paladin sighed. “I just get homesick easily, that’s all.” 

After a moment of silence, Coran piped up, “Do you want to hear some stories of Altea in my day?” 

“That would be great, Coran.” Lance smiled softly. 

The cuban boy listened to the advisor talk and talk about Altea. He heard stories that even the past Coran had never told him- or, well, never got a chance to tell him, anyways. In return, Lance exchanged a few of his own home stories after some encouragement from the ginger-haired altean. After some vargas, Rover came bursting into the room. 

“Wonder what it’s doing…” murmured Coran in wonder. 

Lance, not bothering to hide his alarm yelled, “Coran, run! That isn’t Rover!” 

“What-” 

Before the altean could finish the sentence, Lance had shoved him in front of himself. The sound of the loud explosion flooded his ears as darkness started to overwhelm his vision. The last thing the blue paladin remembered was the soothing words of the lions and the shouts of Coran. Lance welcomed the darkness with open arms. 

Before he knew it, a blinding light engulfed his sight. 

Lance rubbed his eyes, yawning out loud. Looking down, he saw a bruised, injured, and unconscious version of himself. The blue paladin screamed out loud, still not used to the whole ghost thing. When he stood up, he found a shaking Coran slowly picking him up. He willed himself to turn away and run off in the castle. He noticed that he seemed to be more tired than usual when this happened as well as a pain striking his back. However, he promptly ignored it. He watched his fellow paladins exchange conversations with one another as well as the arusians. Sirens bellowed throughout the castle walls. Lance winced at the loud sound, covering his ears. The cuban boy saw Shiro’s and Allura’s eyes widen in surprise while the others looked the same with a hint of panic. An arusian barged in talking about an attack in the village. Lance’s eyelids felt heavy. He tried to get himself to stay awake longer. He would take much more time opening his eyes when he was watching the panic fly around the area. He heard Hunk and Keith yelling...something about Pidge...Coran with his body. Lance was tired. So, so very tired. 

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a while, he thought. 

____

When Lance opened his eyes again, he found himself standing next to his body, Shiro standing beside him. Lance was still in his ghost form, feeling numb. Most of the pain was gone, but there was now a throbbing feeling in his back as well as some minor pain. He turned away from the sight of his bloody body and instead watched Shiro carefully. The black paladin seemed to be stressed and frantically muttering into his earpiece. 

Carefully, Lance shuffled towards Shiro, “Don’t worry so much, Shiro,” Lance said airily, “I’ll be fine. Just work on getting to safety.” 

Shiro’s head shot up towards the bloody body of the blue paladin, disbelief clear in his eyes. Lance saw him shake his head and mutter back into his ear piece before stopping abruptly. Two galran soldiers had trudged into the room, taking one look at the two paladins. Immediately, Shiro was up in a defensive position with his galran hand glowing brightly. Lance watched the fight unfold, feeling a bit more awake because of it. He watched the galra soldiers drag Shiro and his body away. Slowly, the ghost-like blue paladin followed them. 

Gradually, his eyelids became heavy again. The pain slowly returned to the ghost-like figure. It felt as if he was being stabbed multiple times with the injuries just sticking out. Letting out a short scream, he fell unconscious all over again. 

____

“...away!” 

Lance woke up to the sound of talking. His eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the sudden light of the new room. He instantly recognized Shiro’s voice, which sounded strained. He heard Pidge, too. Pidge. Lance’s eyes focused on the small paladin, who was currently fighting. Shiro was restrained against the wall next to him. He had to do something. He won’t let Pidge die already, not yet, not now. Summing up his strength, the paladin got out his bayard. He didn’t remember his bayard changing forms or the bullet that hit whatever galran soldier that was at Pidge. All he knew, moments later, that he was back asleep and that someone had caught him. 

Pidge is safe now, he thought, Pidge is safe. 

_________

“Honerva!” Zarkon spat at the druid, “What was that? That was pathetic, witch. You didn’t get either of the paladins I ordered you to.” 

The druid took in a breath. “I’m sorry, my lord. I will not disappoint you again.” 

“I will take your word for that,” Zarkon snarled, “but if this happens again, I won’t be so merciful, Honerva, remember that.” 

Honerva nodded mutely and made her way out of the room, her hand balled into a fist. Anger covered her unattractive features as well. The woman threw off her hood once she was in a private room by herself. Her yellow eyes glowed dangerously as she approached a stranded mirror placed in the room. The room was mostly where she stayed; it was where she collected her thoughts. 

How dare they, She thought to herself furiously, make a fool of myself in front of him? Next time I see them...oh, they better do well. They will not ruin my chances. I’m surprised the emperor even keeps goons like them. 

A flashing image of the princess’ face flared into her mind. Honerva growled, punching the mirror with her balled fist. Glass shards fell at her feet sharply. Each shard was pointed and could easily do much damage to a normal human being. However, the glass meant nothing to the druid. She didn’t react to the shattering glass nor to the sound of it breaking. Anger covered her thoughts completely. 

Honerva turned back abruptly; her job was done here. After all, she had more important things to do than act so...so...childish. Honerva had someone she needed to meet. Walking down the halls of the great ship, she put her hood up swiftly. Ahead of her, she saw two galra guards at two large doors. Once she approached them, their postures immediately got stiff and straight. They looked at her with fear and panic lingering in their eyes. 

“What can we do for you, ma’am?” the guard on the left asked confidently. 

A wicked smile spread across her face. “I have a new order for you two,” 

____  
For the next few days, Lance wandered around the castle randomly. He felt like a husk, empty with no sort of emotion. None of the lions had visited him once in the past few days. He had watched the other paladins sit outside of his pod. Those mostly being Hunk, Keith, and Allura. Sometimes, when the blue paladin felt more “awake”, he would whisper comforting words in the paladins’ ears, give tips, or just crack a joke on rare occasions. They all had different reactions, of course. Keith would ignore him, which would annoy the husk-like paladin when he was “awake”, Pidge would hesitate before ignoring him, Hunk and Coran would look around for a few moments then look confused, Shiro would just mutter to himself, and Allura would speak out loud for a few moments before going silent. The husk would often observe the other paladins’ adventures. Lance could barely remember the event of the balmaras, but he could nonetheless. 

Lance was sitting next to Keith on the couch, tuning out his words towards the other paladins. A flash of blue caught his eye from the corner of his eye. The husk-like figure tilted his head to the right a bit before following the blur of blue. He glanced at the team once more before heading off in the direction where the blur wandered off to. When he arrived, he saw five bodies standing up straight, staring at him. His body went into defensive mode before relaxing slightly when they didn't make a move to attack. The tanned woman dressed in blue went up to him, giving him an apologetic smile. 

“Finally,” the woman with the green hair grumbled, “why did we wait so long again?” 

The dark skinned man in black jabbed her lightly with his elbow. “Green,” he said in a warning tone. 

‘Green, the green lion,’ Lance’s mind supplied, ‘which means the rest of them are the other lions. Right.’

“What took you so long?” Lance found himself asking without thinking. 

Yellow winced. “Yeah, sorry about that, Lance. We were...busy.” 

Now that the blue paladin thought about it, they all did look tired. Well, for Black and Green, more tired than usual. Blue’s hair was an absolute mess, which never happened with her. She was probably one of the only people Lance knew, other than himself, of course, that cared so much about their looks. Red and Yellow had small bags under their eyes as well. The cuban boy felt himself frown. 

“Are you guys okay though? You all look tired. Have you guys been sleeping at all? I swear to god. Just because you’re more than ten-thousand years old doesn’t mean that you can stay up at ungodly hours!” scolded Lance. 

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better, Lance.” Black smiled, “But don’t worry about us; we’re fine.” 

Lance rose a brow. 

“Maybe…” Blue started, chuckling nervously, “maybe not that fine, if ya know what I mean?” 

The paladin let out a short laugh. “Blue, you should know that you will not be able to change the topic with me, right?” 

“It was worth a shot,” Green shrugged. 

“Now, I want answers,” Lance demanded at the tired lions. 

Yellow sighed, “Alright, Lance,” he rubbed his eyes before looking at the paladin, “What do you want to know?”


End file.
